January 27, 2006
Da Ponte Addenda Posted by John Steele Gordon at 11:10 AM EST Two small additions to the extraordinary life of Lorenzo da Ponte:
1) He was the first librettist in history not to labor in utter obscurity, and for a hundred years the only one. Even today the writers of opera librettos are, at most, a footnote in the theater program. The reason, I suppose, is that in opera the words don’t much matter, as it’s nearly impossible to understand them even if you speak the language the opera is sung in. Only when Gilbert and Sullivan began to write operettas where the words were every bit as important as the music did the book writer and lyricist (Gilbert) get equal billing with the composer. 2) Lorenzo da Ponte had his portrait painted after he moved to America. The artist? Samuel F. B. Morse.
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