DA PONTE, LORENZO

DA PONTE, LORENZO. - Man of letters, b. at Ceneda (Belluno) in 1749. A Jew, he was baptized by Bishop Da Ponte, who had taken him in out of charity and whose name he assumed. For reasons of calculation, he embraced an ecclesiastical career (1773). Because of his dissipated life he was obliged to flee Venice and was later expelled from Austria, where he had been court poet and had composed for Mozart the libretti of Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni e Così fan tutte. Thereafter he wandered through England and America, where he spread Italian culture. His Memorie (1829-30) reveal him as one of those adventurers of the late eighteenth century whose fundamental genius was impaired by a lack of moral sense and by the restlessness of his life. Some religious Salmi disclose his spiritual poverty. He died reconciled with the Church in New York in 1838.