Lorenzo da Ponte

One of the greatest librettists in opera history, Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838) lived an eventful life. Born with the name of Emanuele Conigliano to a Jewish family, his name was changed to Lorenzo da Ponte when his father converted to Roman Catholicism to marry a Catholic Italian woman. He was ordained as a Catholic priest and took up a teaching position in Venice, but was kicked out of both the city and the priesthood for fathering two children. He moved to Vienna, where he was introduced to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Antonio Salieri. His collaborations with Mozart resulted in The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, though he also worked with other prominent composers of the time. His taste for political intrigues got him dismissed from Vienna, and after a brief sojourn in London, he washed up in New York City. There, he ran a grocery store and a bookstore before Columbia students discovered him and made him the college’s first-ever professor of Italian literature.