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Lorenzo da Ponte
Priest, womanizer, professor—and Mozart's librettist
Born the eldest of three sons in the Jewish ghetto of Ceneda, Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749 –1838) was originally named Emanuele Conegliano, until his father remarried a Catholic and converted the whole family. Emanuele, then 14, took the name Lorenzo after the bishop who baptised him. All three brothers then went to study in a seminary. Lorenzo learned classical languages and Hebrew, and became a professor of Italian literature, while enjoying numerous love affairs.
Nevertheless at age 24 he became a priest, and was assigned to San Luca in Venice, where he became friends with Casanova and Gozzi and had two children with his married mistress Anzolletta Bellaudi. He escaped before the Council of Ten banished him from Venice for 15 years, citing his living in a brothel and 'public concubinage.'
Image by PD Art