[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 27 (Monday, February 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1738-S1739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      LORENZO Da PONTE, 1749-1838

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, among the paintings hanging in 
the Blue Room of New York's City Hall is a full-length portrait of 
General Lafayette by Samuel F. B. Morse. The father of the telegraph 
(and noted member of the anti-Catholic ``Know-Nothings''), began his 
career as a portrait artist. For his commission, Morse received $100 
and earned a reputation as a gifted painter. Before turning to 
invention, he would paint the portraits of a galaxy of New York 
worthies.
  The subject of one such portrait is known to opera lovers the world 
over--Lorenzo Da Ponte. He was, of course, the librettist of Mozart's 
masterpieces Don Giovanni, Nozze di Figaro, and Cosi Fan Tutte. What 
makes his life especially intriguing to an American is his career in 
New York. In a preface to a 1959 edition of his Memoirs (first 
published in 1830) Thomas G. Bergin observes

       By tradition, education, and experience, this European 
     sophisticate would seem to be far removed from the American 
     Psyche; but his deeper nature--eager, adventurous and 
     basically evangelical--was well-adapted to the New World.

  Born March 10, 1749 in Ceneda, Italy, now Vittorio Veneto, Da Ponte 
arrived in New York in 1805 in his middle years and with what might 
seem to be his greatest work already behind him. Upon coming ashore, he 
was the self-proclaimed ``poet of the Emperor Joseph II, for Salieri, 
for Storace, for Mozart!'' He found work as a grocer on the Bowery, 
that great stretch of Manhattan teeming with all the varieties of 19th 
Century life. He soon fell in with the young Clement Clark Moore, 
founder of the General Theological Seminary and the (long anonymous) 
author of The Night Before Christmas. The two shared a love of language 
and books. Moore, amazed by Da Ponte's brilliance, introduced his 
friend to a literary group at Columbia College, of which he was a 
trustee. The group included the future Congressman Gulian Verplank. In 
time Da Ponte would become a major figure in New York society, dining 
with Livingstons, Hamiltons, Onderdoncks and the like. He became a 
professor of Italian, donated the first volume of Italian literature to 
the New York Public Library, and, with the help of his friends at 
Columbia, founded the Italian Opera. Don Giovanni was performed at the 
Park Theater in May 1826 and it may be said New York has never been the 
same.
  The scholar Arthur Livingston observes, ``There is no doubt all this 
was an important moment for the American mind. Da Ponte made Europe, 
poetry, painting, music, the artistic spirit, classical lore, a 
creative classical education, live for many important Americans as no 
one had done before.''
  In 1838, his last year on earth, he was given absolution by John 
MacCloskey, New York's second Archbishop and America's first Cardinal. 
He died on August 17. Three days later, at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral 
at Mott and Prince Streets, he was honored with a ``hero's burial'' 
before a large and distinguished funeral party. As one account has it:

       Da Ponte was buried, probably in the tomb of a friend, to 
     await reburial and a headstone at a later date. As far as is 
     known, the reburial never took place, and the headstone was 
     not installed. The overcrowded cemetery was closed in 1848, 
     and all of its records (including Da Ponte's) were destroyed 
     when Old St. Patrick's was gutted by fire eighteen years 
     later. . . . Between 1909 and 1915, all the bodies were 
     disinterred and moved, with or without identification, to 
     Calvary Cemetery in Queens.

And so, like Mozart, Da Ponte came to rest in an unmarked grave.
  This year provides an opportunity to rectify, at least in part, this 
sad and resonant ending. This seems a wondrous time to celebrate 
perhaps by some memorial in Old St. Patrick's, surely by performing 
Mozart's Requiem, K.626, composed in 1791.
  After his death, the New York Daily Express recorded:


[[Page S1739]]


       Signor Da Ponte came to America, where he has resided 32 
     years, chiefly in this city; and to his indefatigable 
     exertions, commanding talents, and profound literary 
     attainments, are we mainly indebted for the taste everywhere 
     diffused on our country for the music and language of his 
     native land. He has been the Cadmas to whom we owe an 
     unpayable debt for these inappreciable gifts.

  We are in his debt to this day, and surely 1999 is year to 
acknowledge it.
  I ask that the obituary from the New York Daily Express be printed in 
the Record.
  The obituary follows:

           [From the New York Daily Express, August 20, 1838]

                              City Affairs

       Death of Daponte--Signor Lorenzo Daponte being a resident 
     of this City died here on Friday at the advanced age of 90. 
     His celebrated opera, written for Mozart, has given him a 
     name all over the world. The Sunday Morning News states that 
     he was a Venetian and native of Cenda--educated from the 
     Church, and then afterwards from his fine poetic talents and 
     passion for music, that he became a prominent person in the 
     Court of Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Under his special 
     protection, he formed a close relationship with the 
     celebrated Mozart, which led to the production of those 
     admired Operas, Giovanni, the Marriage of Figaro, and c., 
     which the poetry of Daponte is no less eternized by its own 
     beauties than by the divine music by which it is embalmed. 
     After the decease of Mozart, who died in his friend Daponte's 
     arms, the poet went to London, and there for years was 
     intimately associated with the early efforts to introduce a 
     more perfect Italian Opera. From there, Signor Daponte came 
     to America, where he has resided 32 years, chiefly in this 
     city; and to his indefatigable exertions, commanding talents, 
     and profound literary attainments, are we mainly indebted for 
     the taste every where diffused in our country for the music 
     and language of his native land. He has been the Cadmas to 
     whom we owe an unpayable debt for these inappreciable gifts. 
     His memory will endure; for his disinterested labors and 
     passionate devotion to the arts which he cultivated. As a 
     Latin and Hebrew Scholar, he had perhaps no equal or superior 
     here.
       Notice.--The numerous Italians of this City, countrymen of 
     the venerable Daponte, deeply impressed with the honor which 
     the character and labors of the deceased have reflected on 
     their own and their adoptive country, will assemble at his 
     late residence, No. 91 Spring Street, precisely at 6 o'clock 
     p.m. this day whence his remains will be conveyed to the 
     Cathedral, and a requiem performed by distinguished Italian 
     artists of this City, previous to the interment of the corpse 
     in the Catholic burying ground.

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