Mozart’s Jewish Librettist: A Brief History of a Poorly Kept Secret

Authors

Robert L. Marshall, Brandeis UniversityFollow

Keywords

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, biography, Judaism and music, Michael Kelly, Georg Nikolaus Nissen, Edward Holmes, Otto Jahn, Angelo Marchesan, Ludwig Schiedemair, Erich Schenk, Alfred Einstein

Abstract

Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist of Mozart’s three greatest Italian operas, was born a Jew, a fact rumored about during his lifetime but not definitively established until 1900. The treatment (or not) of Da Ponte’s Jewish origins as documented from his time to the present constitutes a history of concealment, rumor, discovery, denigration, and exploitation. Its nadir was reached during the Nazi period, its zenith most recently, as the poet, hitherto a secondary player in the Mozart biographies, has emerged as the colorful protagonist in substantial biographies of his own.

Recommended Citation

Marshall, Robert L.. "Mozart’s Jewish Librettist: A Brief History of a Poorly Kept Secret." Music & Musical Performance: An International Journal. Issue 5, article 3 (March 2024).
Available at: https://scholars.unh.edu/mmp/vol1/iss5/3