For nearly 150 years after his death the name of Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838) languished in relative obscurity. It was only in the 1980s that he began to be recognized as one of the greatest librettists who ever lived. Of his 89 years, fewer than 20 were devoted to writing opera texts. Yet during this period, as poet first to the court of Joseph II in Vienna and then to the King's Theatre, the home of Italian opera in London, he wrote or adapted nearly 50 libretti for 19 different composers.

Lorenzo Da Ponte was born on March 10, 1749 in the Italian city of Ceneda, near Venice. His family was originally Jewish, but converted to Catholicism when Lorenzo was a young child. Da Ponte studied at the Ceneda Seminary and the Portogruaro Seminary, where he later obtained a teaching position (1770-73). He was ordained as a priest and administered sacraments for the first time...