We all know the great Venetian opera librettist and poet Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838) from his collaboration on three of Mozart’s most celebrated operas, The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790). It is much less known that da Ponte fled to the United States in 1805, escaping mounting debts and bankruptcy.

Lorenzo da Ponte

For a while, da Ponte operated a grocery store and gave private Italian lessons in the state of Pennsylvania. However, he eventually settled in New York and opened a bookstore, and he became a naturalised American citizen in 1828. Not to be outdone, da Ponte was appointed professor of Italian language and literature at Columbia College.

Almost as expected, da Ponte kept a close eye on the operatic world and introduced and produced the first full performance of Don Giovanni in the United States in 1825. Maria García, soon to be Maria Malibran, sang the role of Zerlina, and with his niece Giulia da Ponte, he toured the United States with music by Gioachino Rossini.

L’Ape Musicale: “Act I Scene 1: Nostra Patria e il mondo intero” (William Matteuzzi, tenor; Bruno de Simone, baritone; Teatro la Fenice Chorus; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)
L’Ape Musicale: “Act I Scene 1: Temporale” (Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

However, da Ponte had bigger ambitions, and he attempted to set up an Italian opera in New York. As he writes in his memoirs, “I well foresaw which and how many advantages our Italian literature would gain, and to what extent our language will spread owing to the enticements of Italian theatre which, for all the civilised nations of the world, is the most noble and most charming of all the spectacles that human genius has invented.”

The project aimed to get the first Italian opera conceived in the United States off the ground, was called L’Ape Musicale (The Musical Bee). It was clearly intended for an American audience, as da Ponte declared in the dedication, “To the inhabitants of the City of New York.” The libretto started life a quarter of a century earlier, as an early version was staged in 1789 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The 1791 version with the revised title “The renewed musical bee” also played in Vienna, while an additional version was adopted for the Trieste Carnival season in 1792 under the title “L’ ape musicale, ossia il poet impresario.”

L’Ape Musicale: “Act I Scene 2: Vieni o gentil donzella” (Teatro la Fenice Chorus; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

The Italian Opera House New York, Lorenzo da Ponte company

The New York version of the libretto, changing the names of the characters but keeping the original scaffolding, sets the opera in a fictional place called the “Lucky Island.” A group of Italian opera enthusiasts, including a musician, a penniless singer, a sly poet and a theatrical impresario, are in great turmoil over the arrival of a singer from Italy who will sing in Rossini’s Semiramide. Things are complicated when other supposed projects intervene, and everybody joins in the argument about what particular program is to be performed.

The libretto is narrated in a completely autobiographical way and includes the agitation of an avid entrepreneur, the naivety of the young prima donna, and the resistance of the local répétiteur, an old maestro hostile to any innovation and still fond of the ballad operas of the colonial period. As a scholar writes, “da Ponte was admirably successful in transforming reality into fiction, but also in predicting the bright future for the genre in the United States: E l’Opera Italiana ancor trionferà!”

L’Ape Musicale: “Act I Scene 3: Ecco l’istante, amico, in cui tu puoi” (Enzo Dara, bass; Bruno de Simone, baritone; William Matteuzzi, tenor; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

Da Ponte writes in the dedication, “Lacking actors, tempo and scores, I composed this poetic whim for no other purpose than to amuse a respectable audience in a certain way and at the same time offer an opportunity to a new singer to give some idea of ​​her ability in action (whatever it may be) which is impossible to do in one of the so-called Concerts. After having searched for a title that could be suitable for such a work, I took hold of L’Ape Musicale (The Musical Bee).”

“Therefore, I do not offer as Apollo’s gardener a Lily, a Rose, or a dramatic Daffodil picked by me on the peaks of that mountain, but in the guise of the little bee, who by sucking and mixing the essence of these flowers, forms honeycombs and the sweetest and most pleasant of foods. By uniting the vaguest harmonies of our favourite composers, I hope to give one of the most pleasant pastimes to the discreet spectator.”

L’Ape Musicale: “Act I Scene 4: Ora, padroni miei” (Enzo Dara, bass; Adelina Scarabelli, soprano; Bruno de Simone, baritone; William Matteuzzi, tenor; Maurizio Comencini, tenor; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

Park Row and Park Theatre

The opera featured five characters: “Monibello” the poet (baritone), “Narciso” a penniless singer (tenor), “Don Canario” a singer (tenor), “Don Nibbio” the theatre impresario (bass); and “Lucinda” a singer (soprano). With the libretto and singers in place, all this theatre piece really needed was music. And that was borrowed, for the New York production, from the repertoire of highly acclaimed composers, including Mozart, Salieri, Cimarosa, Zingarelli, Mercadante, and above all, Rossini.

The potpourri character immediately emerges in the overture, as it blends music from Rossini’s operas Tancredi, La Cenerentola, The Barber of Seville, The Turk in Italy, Othello, and Semiramide. The introductory chorus, “Our homeland is the whole world,” is set to music from Rossini’s The Turk in Italy, and the recitative “It’s Said a Moment” quotes from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Geronimo’s first aria, “Listen, everybody,” takes music from The Secret Marriage by Domenico Cimarosa, and the recitative “Ecco che sulle fravole” sounds quotations from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Semiramide and from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. Concluding Act 1, Scene 1 is the optional “Thunderstorm” from Rossini’s opera The Touchstone.

L’Ape Musicale: “Act I Scene 5: Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schon” (Maurizio Comencini, tenor; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

The second scene from Act 1 opens with the introduction and chorus “Come, gentle maid,” from Romeo and Juliet by Nicola Antonio Zingarelli, and the recitative “These are the banks” features a quotation from Rossini’s Tancredi. Lucinda’s cavatina “my heart leaps from pleasure” is almost predictably set to Rossini’s La gazza ladra. The recitative “Here is the moment, friend” sounds quotations from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and The Magic Flute and Cosi fan tutte by Mozart. Concluding scene 3, the duet “As an ingenious bee,” meanwhile, borrow from Axur, re d’Oremus by Antonio Salieri.

An optional insert duet opens the fourth scene of Act 1, sounding fragments from The Barber of Seville by Rossini. The subsequent recitative and duet “If life is still dear to you,” borrows music from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Rossini’s Semiramide. In the recitative “Truly it’s beautiful” we hear quotes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Cosi fan tutte, while the Cavatini “Without, without ceremonies” once more relies on The Secret Marriage by Domenico Cimarosa. Concluding scene 4 is the recitative “Now my masters,” with quotes from Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Mozart’s Requiem, as well as Rossini’s Semiramide. And everybody surely recognised “This Image is enchantingly lovely,” from Tamino’s aria in The Magic Flute.

L’Ape Musicale: “Act II Scene 1: Assur, i cenni miei” (Adelina Scarabelli, soprano; William Matteuzzi, tenor; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

L’Ape Musicale

Opening Act II is a scene and duet from Rossini’s Semiramide, and the recitative “This really is” comes from his Barber of Seville. This is followed by Almaviva’s cavatina “Here’s laughing in heaven,” also from The Barber of Seville, and the insertion aria “Ombretto” reaches for Rossini’s opera The Tombstone. The recitative “Bravo” quotes from The Barber of Seville, The Secret Marriage and Il Bravo by Saverio Mercadante.

The fun continues with a chorus and aria by Fiorilla from The Turk in Italy, and the same musical source is used for the subsequent recitative. Things are heating up with the duet “Ah, come to my breasts,” from L’equivoco stravagante by Rossini, and the recitative “Friends, be cheerful” quotes from La Cenerentola. A cavatina from the Italian in Algiers leads into the Finale, as the Chorus intones, “I was born to grief and tears”, with music taken from La Cenerentola.

L’Ape Musicale: “Act II Scene 2: Evviva d’amore il foco vitale” (Adelina Scarabelli, soprano; Bruno de Simone, baritone; Teatro la Fenice Chorus; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)

Da Ponte had strong ambitions to see Italian opera permanently established in New York, and he founded the first purpose-built opera theatre in the United States, the Italian Opera House in New York City. It only lasted two seasons before the company had to declare bankruptcy. However, da Ponte kept on trying, and he published a pamphlet addressed “To those Americans who love the fine arts” in 1835.

“Let the verses that I now present you,” he writes, “rouse you from your lethargy; yet should they not, I will not cease to cry aloud. I cannot now remain in silence while my fellow countrymen are sacrificed, the citizens of two noble cities deceived, and an enterprise for which I have so long and ardently laboured, so calculated to shed lustre on the nation, and so honourable in its commencement, ruined by those who have no means, nor knowledge, nor experience. Answer at least these questions: Did you not request from me an Italian company?”

Nothing came of his plea, but da Ponte’s opera house was the predecessor of the New York Academy of Music and the New York Metropolitan Opera. Da Ponte died in 1838 in New York, and an enormous funeral ceremony attested to his deserved fame.

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L’Ape Musicale: “Act II Scene 3: Languir per una bella e star lontan (Narciso) – Finale: Della Fortuna instabile” (William Matteuzzi, tenor; Adelina Scarabelli, soprano; Bruno de Simone, baritone; Teatro la Fenice Chorus; Teatro la Fenice Orchestra; Vittorio Parisi, cond.)