Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838) was recognized as a musical prodigy at a young age. He moved to Vienna where he met Mozart and composed three libretti for him. He then moved to London and after a somewhat chequered career emigrated to New York. After several unsuccessful and unprofitable ventures to establish opera in the city he settled down as a Professor of Italian at Columbia University.
"I shall speak of things...so singular in their oddity as in some
manner to instruct, or at least entertain, without wearying."
—Lorenzo Da Ponte
"[Da Ponte] was in the course of his lifetime the friend of Mozart,
the confidante of Casanova, and the protege of the author of The
Night Before Christmas...To savor to the full the richness produced
by the commingling of such exotic ingredients one must sit down
with the Memoirs and follow the gifted vagabond step by step."
—Thomas G. Bergin, Yale University
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