Michael Aitken in his article “The Leporello and Lorne: A personal story” in the December 2006 (352nd) issue wondered whether Mozart’s character was named after the fold-out publication or vice versa, and Brian Taylor in his item in the March 2007 (353rd) issue cited a source that said that the publication was named after the character, but there remained the problem of what the Mozartian character’s Italian name might mean.After reading the item in the latter issue, one of Sydney’s keener opera buffs with some knowledge of Italian, Dr John O Ward of the Centre for Medieval Studies at Sydney University, has suggested that it means ‘little hare’. (Why?—Perhaps because he has to ‘rabbit around’ after the Don on his way to his numerous trysts!).[singlepic id=64 w=320 h=240 float=left] Lorenzo da Ponte (1749–1838), author of the text for Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni and so the inventor of Leporello.
