DANIEL JOHN KELLEY

One of the pieces I’m in the process of researching and exploring right now is about Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Da Ponte is most famously the librettist for three of Mozart’s greatest operas- The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte. Less famously, he led a most extraordinary life- of which Mozart is only one chapter. In fact, not even. In Da Ponte’s own autobiography, Mozart is barely mentioned. The focus is, instead, on Da Ponte’s own life of adventure- his travels from place to place, building himself up to the pinnacle of achievement and then being destroyed completely by other people’s jealously.

At least, so says Da Ponte. In the story of his life, nothing is ever his fault, and everyone is out to get him. A man of the theatre, Da Ponte’s memoirs are to be taken with a bag and half of salt. That being said, his adventures are emblematic of what is, essentially, the American dream. Da Ponte was born a Jew in a ghetto in Italy, and built himself up by his wits alone to be a successful man of letters in 18th and 19th century Europe. After many adventures, Da Ponte ended up in America- where he became the first professor of Italian language at Columbia and where he lived until his death. There are two possibilities of where he was buried, and they are both emblematic of the man and the myth of Lorenzo Da Ponte.

He was literally buried on 11th st btw. 1st Avenue and Avenue A- in a graveyard that was later paved over to make a parking lot.

The remains of those in the graveyard was moved to a larger graveyard in Queens. No one knows whose remains were whose, but they gave Da Ponte a nice big gravestone anyway.

So Da Ponte is either buried here:

Or perhaps here:

But the truth of it will never be known.