Da Ponte, Lorenzo, originally Emanuele Conegliano 1749-1838
Italian poet

He was born in Ceneda, near Venice, of Jewish parents. After converting to Roman Catholicism, he became Professor of Rhetoric at Treviso until political and domestic troubles drove him to Vienna, where as a poet to the Court Opera he wrote the libretti for Mozart's operas The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787) and Cos� fan Tutte (1790). In London he taught Italian and sold boots, before moving in 1805 to New York where he eventually became Professor of Italian Literature at Columbia College (1825).