“Madamina, il catalogo è questo”. Did Lorenzo Da Ponte Play with Numbers in Leporello’s Catalogue?

Abstract

Lorenzo Da Ponte is recognized as one of the greatest librettists of all times. To opera lovers, his name is worldwide related to Mozart's three immortal Italian operas: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così Fan Tutte. In Le Nozze di Figaro and in Don Giovanni, there is the curious presence of numbers-namely integers-arranged in lists, "catalogues". I try to answer the question: Were these numbers chosen just by chance and only to fit Mozart's music, or did they hide some covered message? Because of his Jewish origin and culture, never mentioned in his Memorie, Da Ponte was acquainted with Gematria, a numerical coding technique used in the Jewish Torah. By applying the Gematria of the Italian alphabet, I show that a random choice of the integers listed in the two libretti must be excluded, therefore, I conjecture that Da Ponte did play with numbers by hiding them in his names (Emanuele Conegliano, Lesbonico Pegasio, Lorenzo da Ponte), in agreement with his high self-esteem.