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It's been said that music gives
a soul to the universe.

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And life to everything.

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Almost about 200 years ago,

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this grand space was the site

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of a long forgotten event,

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the first of its kind.

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An oratorio staged
as a benefit concert.

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And I think it's appropriate
that it happened here,

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in this neighborhood,
at the intersection

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of the old world
and the new.

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And this concert happened
at a crucial moment

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in the cultural history
of New York City

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and firmly set the city
on course to become the diverse

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and very vibrant center
for the arts it is today.

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You have to imagine
New York City

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in the early 1800's.

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Now, at that point, it was
the largest city in the country

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and it was growing day by day
with immigrants from Europe.

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But culturally it was still
kind of a backwater.

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It was lagging
far behind Philadelphia

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and especially Boston,
where the arts were thriving.

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So you can understand
how meaningful

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that night in 1826 was
to the life of this city

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when 2300 people crowded
into this great space

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to hear what was billed
as an event to far surpass

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anything of the kind
ever produced in the union.

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Now, for many members
of the audience,

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it was their very first
exposure to music

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sung in an operatic style.

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The oratorio is one ingredient

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in this explosion
of musical culture here

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in the city, and it began here
at the old cathedral.

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It's remarkable, the history of
the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral

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and it's really been
an untapped gem.

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Most New Yorkers aren't even
aware that it even exists.

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The walls are original,
as I mentioned.

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This used to be the exterior
wall of the church...

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People are always rediscovering
the fascinating history

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and--and connections
to this church.

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...in the very spot
I'm standing on,

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this is where the baptism scene
of "The Godfather" was filmed.

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Michael,
do you renounce Satan?

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I do.

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Now we have one more stop
in front of this statue here

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before I take us up into the
choir loft. Over here we have...

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During one of my tours,
I bumped

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into these two gentlemen
from Italy.

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And it wasn't until afterwards

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that they
revealed to me who they were.

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And as a result of that meeting
and introduction,

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they had the Italian
government finance them

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to return here to recreate
that very oratorio

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that took place here
over 150 years ago.

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The opera company,
the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari,

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is working to recreate
that evening from 1826.

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So it's a gift from Italy
to America,

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from the old world to the new.

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We are in the crossroads
of New York City.

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You know, just geographically,
if you look at us on a map,

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you can see where we are.

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We're in the very center
of this vitality and creativity.

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But just a few years before
the cornerstone was laid

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in 1809, the city of New York
was not here.

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This was rural up here,
and people complained

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about coming to
the consecration of the church.

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This was still outside
of the city:

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muddy roads and...

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orchards and farmland.

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But then, with immigration,
the city of New York went

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from little to very big
very quickly, and this was

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the cathedral church during
that tremendous age of growth

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with an immigrant population
that settled in this area

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basically Irish in the fore part
of the 19th century.

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And then some years later,

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there was also this Italian
movement from Europe.

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One of the first and certainly
one of the most influential of

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these early Italian immigrants
was Lorenzo da Ponte.

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I had only known of him
as Mozart's librettist,

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not knowing of his connection
to this very church.

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But it turns out
that he was the man

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behind the staging
of the 1826 oratorio.

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It's quite fascinating
to--to ponder

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that Mozart's librettist
ended up here

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in this neighborhood.

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In his old age,
he was a bookseller

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and a humble grocer,

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and he was a parishioner
at this church as well

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and lived
a fascinating life.

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His life is somewhat
controversial, but you really

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have to get inside
the mind of this man.

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He was Jewish up
until 14 years old,

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and right after his bar mitzvah,
he was converted to Catholicism.

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His father could not
afford to house

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and board his own children,
so Lorenzo da Ponte

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was persuaded to enter
the priesthood.

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Now, his stint as a priest
was short lived,

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he had a little bit of
a controversy in his life.

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He had numerous scandals
as a priest.

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He was chased out of places
for being a libertine.

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He consorted
with all sorts of women.

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Venice was a free-for-all
in those days.

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Da Ponte himself was
a real Casanova,

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so it's no coincidence
that he happened to be friends

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with Casanova.
Ha ha!

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He lived
a very promiscuous life.

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There are all kinds of stories
about his time there,

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including fathering
two children to his mistress

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and living in a brothel.

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So, not surprisingly,
he was accused

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of living a lifestyle
unfit for a priest.

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He fled the region and in his
absence was sentenced to prison.

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The oratorio is different
from an opera in that there's

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no drama per se,
it's more like a concert.

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This oratorio has sacred texts

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in Latin and English
and sort of a hodgepodge

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of composers and styles.

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I'm not an authority on opera,
that's for sure,

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but I did grow up listening
to it, or perhaps I should say

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listening to sections
of operas and arias.

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A couple of hours before
my mother and father got home

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from work, in the apartment
I would sit there

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and play these old 78s
my uncle gave me, and I wasn't

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the only kid in the neighborhood
with these experiences.

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Many of my friends and I in our
teenage years - we'd get tickets

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to the old Met, the old
Metropolitan Opera House,

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way up in the cheap seats
or even the places where--

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with just standing room, and
we'd sort of look down and just

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marvel at the spectacle
of the opera as best we can.

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My grandparents,
who came from Sicily

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around 1910,
they only spoke Sicilian,

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and they would sing occasionally
as they were working in the

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house, which was another way
I heard opera when I was young.

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I truly feel that music
and the daily lives

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of Italian Americans
are wedded forever.

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Now, the other key element
of music

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in this city and down here
were the Italian festivals,

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Italian feasts we call them,
and that's where we really

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became aware of all
the old Italian music,

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the Sicilian folk songs,
Neapolitan folk songs.

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They would have people
in a bandstand from Italy

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and come and sing two, you know,
two or three nights in a row

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till about00
in the morning.

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And 'O Marenariello is
a very important piece of music

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that always ended the festival,
'O Marenariello, and I use it

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at the end of "Mean Streets."
It ends the film.

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Jared Lamenzo is
the organ master here

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at Old St. Patrick's.

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He's the one who has to
maintain this beautiful machine,

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which was built in 1868.

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All right. Here we are.

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I have an engineering
background.

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That's how I learned how to
tinker with mechanical things.

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That is not good.

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Those skills came in handy
dealing with the Erben organ,

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which I need to tinker with
to have it work.

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When you encounter
an instrument like this,

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you know a lot of great
organists must have played it.

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So one of the first things
I looked into

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was who those people were.

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And I went to find
newspaper clippings,

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whatever other references
in various books

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00:16:30,166 --> 00:16:32,834
about the musical activities
in churches.

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And that's how I ran across
the 1826 program

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for the oratorio.

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It was in an article
written in 1903

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in a book about the history
of Catholic New York.

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As far as I know,

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this is the only surviving
account of this event.

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An event which, until now,

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remained entirely lost
to history.

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I couldn't believe I had
found this.

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It was just
this incredible glimpse

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into the musical life
in New York City,

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and there's very little
from that time period available.

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It mentioned this was
the first Italian opera company

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00:17:25,917 --> 00:17:28,333
ever to arrive
on the shores of America.

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And clearly that was
an important moment

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in the history of music and
really an international story

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waiting to be told.

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So immediately when I
found the program,

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I wanted to recreate it.

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I just didn't have all
the music to do it,

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so I'd been looking around
over the years

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at various sources
to find the music.

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But some of it was just
impossible to find.

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I had no idea the answers
were waiting to be found

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halfway around the world.

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Francesco Zimei is
a world-famous musicologist.

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He's been working to recreate
the original musical program.

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And he's had the task of finding
pieces of the original

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00:19:01,583 --> 00:19:05,542
Italian arias that have
since gone missing.

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So after fleeing Venice, Da
Ponte finds his way to Vienna,

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the musical capital
of the world,

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and he is appointed
the court poet.

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Just by a simple recommendation
of Casanova,

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he's in the court
of Emperor Joseph.

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He was once again able to enjoy
his libertine lifestyle.

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00:21:11,083 --> 00:21:14,709
And so it's no surprise
that while in Vienna,

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he happened to cross paths
with another libertine

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living a similar lifestyle

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by the name
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

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00:21:34,291 --> 00:21:37,792
As Mozart's librettist,
Da Ponte was responsible

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00:21:37,875 --> 00:21:43,208
for the dramatic text around
which the music is based.

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Together, they created
dramatic effects

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00:21:45,208 --> 00:21:48,667
that had never been
heard before.

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The music was married
to the drama in a whole new way.

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Da Ponte helped Mozart write
"The Marriage of Figaro,"

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00:22:12,792 --> 00:22:17,208
"Così fan tutte," and one
of my all-time favorites,

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00:22:17,291 --> 00:22:20,166
"Don Giovanni,"
which, by the way,

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is supposedly a narrative
of Mozart's life,

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00:22:23,750 --> 00:22:26,041
but looking
at Da Ponte's life,

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00:22:26,125 --> 00:22:29,208
he was really the Don Juan
between the two of them.

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00:22:42,041 --> 00:22:45,500
After several scandals,
love affairs,

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00:22:45,583 --> 00:22:48,083
scheming,
and prima donna behavior,

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00:22:48,166 --> 00:22:52,417
Da Ponte had fallen out of favor
with the new emperor...

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00:22:53,291 --> 00:22:56,417
and was banished
from Vienna.

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00:22:58,125 --> 00:23:01,083
Da Ponte is forced out
of the very city

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00:23:01,166 --> 00:23:03,583
that would have been
his bread and butter,

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00:23:03,667 --> 00:23:07,542
the city of music, and he
has to reinvent himself.

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Well, I think
that all churches

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are generally filled

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with a motley crew of people,

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00:23:29,208 --> 00:23:31,125
but I think because

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St. Patrick's is

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00:23:34,834 --> 00:23:37,250
filled with such
a unique combination

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00:23:37,333 --> 00:23:40,500
of multigenerational Italians,

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00:23:40,583 --> 00:23:44,417
Dominicans, we're close
to Chinatown.

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00:23:44,500 --> 00:23:47,750
And it's also because it has
such a sense of community

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00:23:47,834 --> 00:23:51,000
that it attracts Catholics
from throughout the island

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00:23:51,083 --> 00:23:53,125
of Manhattan, that it's
a very eclectic group.

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00:23:53,208 --> 00:23:57,291
And so she--I can never get her
to leave when church is over.

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00:23:57,375 --> 00:24:00,583
She's always like, "Let's stay
and talk to the weirdest people

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00:24:00,667 --> 00:24:04,000
here," 'cause you--after church,
you will find the most...

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00:24:04,083 --> 00:24:07,500
There's someone who brings
a dog, like "My dog's Catholic."

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00:24:07,583 --> 00:24:09,333
The dog's painted.
It's not just a dog.

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00:24:09,417 --> 00:24:11,000
The dog is painted
a different color.

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00:24:11,083 --> 00:24:14,500
So like on Easter, it's like
Easter-colored painted dog.

242
00:24:14,583 --> 00:24:17,125
It's like, yeah, that's the
person with a dog at our church.

243
00:24:17,208 --> 00:24:19,041
Anywhere else in
the world, people are like,

244
00:24:19,125 --> 00:24:21,166
"You can't bring
a painted dog to church."

245
00:24:21,250 --> 00:24:24,083
But it's like, "All right,
it's New York."

246
00:24:24,166 --> 00:24:26,583
Great day, guys.

247
00:24:26,667 --> 00:24:29,208
This church has become just kind
of central in our lives.

248
00:24:29,291 --> 00:24:31,709
Yeah, it's interesting
to look at the church

249
00:24:31,792 --> 00:24:34,208
and to see that, you know,
it's a piece of history

250
00:24:34,291 --> 00:24:38,208
and it has this presence
in our life.

251
00:24:38,291 --> 00:24:40,583
Got married there,

252
00:24:40,667 --> 00:24:43,291
had all our kids baptized
there and, you know,

253
00:24:43,375 --> 00:24:47,208
and I'll probably die there.
Ha ha.

254
00:24:51,500 --> 00:24:56,375
So to truly understand the story
of this old cathedral,

255
00:24:56,458 --> 00:25:01,542
you have to understand the
story of its chief benefactor:

256
00:25:01,625 --> 00:25:06,041
a freed slave by the name
of Pierre Toussaint.

257
00:25:06,125 --> 00:25:09,750
He was originally laid to rest
in the north cemetery here,

258
00:25:09,834 --> 00:25:15,208
but because of his
benefactoral work and charity,

259
00:25:15,291 --> 00:25:17,709
he's been put
on the path to sainthood

260
00:25:17,792 --> 00:25:19,709
and he was removed
from the cemetery here.

261
00:25:19,792 --> 00:25:22,208
He's actually up
in St. Patrick's in Midtown.

262
00:25:22,291 --> 00:25:24,250
He's now the Venerable
Pierre Toussaint.

263
00:25:27,375 --> 00:25:31,250
Very intriguing story and most
people haven't even heard of -

264
00:25:31,333 --> 00:25:35,792
started off as a Haitian slave
and was brought over here

265
00:25:35,875 --> 00:25:38,083
by a French family;
it was actually the family

266
00:25:38,166 --> 00:25:42,083
that owned him, the Bérards.
Mr. Bérard had passed away.

267
00:25:42,166 --> 00:25:44,917
His wife was left
with no source of income now,

268
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:49,000
and so Pierre decided to
become a hairdresser

269
00:25:49,083 --> 00:25:52,500
and he became so talented
and successful,

270
00:25:52,583 --> 00:25:55,000
he actually tapped
into the cream of society.

271
00:25:55,083 --> 00:25:57,458
This man was doing the hair
of Mrs. Hamilton,

272
00:25:57,542 --> 00:26:00,583
Alexander Hamilton's wife,
and Mrs. Livingston,

273
00:26:00,667 --> 00:26:02,667
all the wealthy women
of New York.

274
00:26:02,750 --> 00:26:05,083
And we're talking about women
who spent over a thousand

275
00:26:05,166 --> 00:26:08,583
dollars a year on hair.
This was in the late 1700s.

276
00:26:08,667 --> 00:26:11,208
Now, he was able to support
the woman that owned him,

277
00:26:11,291 --> 00:26:16,417
the entire family,
and so in exchange for that,

278
00:26:16,500 --> 00:26:19,000
she allowed Pierre to buy
his freedom, and he

279
00:26:19,083 --> 00:26:21,000
bought the freedom
of his sister, his niece,

280
00:26:21,083 --> 00:26:22,959
and the woman he would
ultimately marry.

281
00:26:23,041 --> 00:26:24,250
Now, through all
of these challenges,

282
00:26:24,333 --> 00:26:26,583
he remained
a devout Catholic.

283
00:26:26,667 --> 00:26:30,625
He actually never missed
a morning mass in 66 years.

284
00:26:30,709 --> 00:26:34,041
And then when St. Peters planned
to have the cathedral built,

285
00:26:34,125 --> 00:26:36,583
he was the first one
to step up and said,

286
00:26:36,667 --> 00:26:38,333
"I will finance the
construction of the cathedral."

287
00:26:38,417 --> 00:26:43,125
He was the biggest contributor
to having this church built.

288
00:26:49,542 --> 00:26:51,250
St. Patrick's was my church.

289
00:26:51,333 --> 00:26:54,083
I lived just around the corner

290
00:26:54,166 --> 00:26:57,542
in a walk-up tenement apartment
on Elizabeth Street.

291
00:26:57,625 --> 00:27:01,166
In the 1920s, this was
an Irish neighborhood,

292
00:27:01,250 --> 00:27:03,542
but by the time I was growing
up in the 40s and 50s,

293
00:27:03,625 --> 00:27:06,542
it had become Italian,
or I should say

294
00:27:06,625 --> 00:27:09,583
that it was Sicilian
on Elizabeth Street,

295
00:27:09,667 --> 00:27:12,458
Neapolitan on Mulberry,
and sort of mixed

296
00:27:12,542 --> 00:27:14,291
on Mott Street somehow.

297
00:27:14,375 --> 00:27:17,041
My grandparents'
and parents' time,

298
00:27:17,125 --> 00:27:19,041
it was actually building
by building -

299
00:27:19,125 --> 00:27:21,834
people from a small village
in the old country

300
00:27:21,917 --> 00:27:23,917
found themselves
in one building,

301
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,000
then from another small village
next door, and so on.

302
00:27:35,125 --> 00:27:39,041
This church was really
the center of all the activities

303
00:27:39,125 --> 00:27:41,125
of this neighborhood,
and it goes way back.

304
00:27:41,208 --> 00:27:44,333
This courtyard, for example,
was very important.

305
00:27:44,417 --> 00:27:45,583
We played in here all the time.

306
00:27:45,667 --> 00:27:50,083
We hid in the graveyard and,
you know, all kinds of things.

307
00:27:50,166 --> 00:27:53,208
It was kind of a refuge;
come in here and, you know,

308
00:27:53,291 --> 00:27:55,625
you hide out if you're
in trouble, whatever.

309
00:27:55,709 --> 00:27:59,125
But...as we got a little older,

310
00:27:59,208 --> 00:28:01,333
we stayed out very late
on Saturday nights

311
00:28:01,417 --> 00:28:05,542
and stumbled
into the30 mass.

312
00:28:05,625 --> 00:28:09,083
And we stood up in the back
usually and came in

313
00:28:09,166 --> 00:28:12,875
a little late, you know, and
come in late and leave early.

314
00:28:12,959 --> 00:28:15,041
And after a while, the priests
caught on to that

315
00:28:15,125 --> 00:28:18,250
and they would insist
that we come and sit down.

316
00:28:18,333 --> 00:28:20,709
But this place was,
in a sense, something

317
00:28:20,792 --> 00:28:23,875
that ultimately affected the way
I view the world

318
00:28:23,959 --> 00:28:26,750
and the way I hear the world
and through my work.

319
00:28:26,834 --> 00:28:30,333
And this is where it came from,
this area right here.

320
00:28:34,542 --> 00:28:37,375
Growing up here,
you know, in 1949,

321
00:28:37,458 --> 00:28:41,291
all the way up to 65, 66,

322
00:28:41,375 --> 00:28:45,375
music was something that was
in the air - it was constant.

323
00:28:45,458 --> 00:28:50,500
And, you know, this place was
not a - it was not that private,

324
00:28:50,583 --> 00:28:53,125
everyone could hear everything,

325
00:28:53,208 --> 00:28:55,291
everybody knew what was going on
in the other apartment

326
00:28:55,375 --> 00:28:58,291
and also they listened
to the music; if your taste was

327
00:28:58,375 --> 00:29:00,250
a certain kind - playing
a record over and over again -

328
00:29:00,333 --> 00:29:02,542
that's what you heard.
Then you had jukeboxes here,

329
00:29:02,625 --> 00:29:04,333
too, and jukeboxes had
that incredible sound,

330
00:29:04,417 --> 00:29:07,417
the sound that would just go
through the streets at night.

331
00:29:21,542 --> 00:29:24,667
But you got to imagine,
particularly in the summer,

332
00:29:24,750 --> 00:29:28,041
with the windows open,
people's radios playing

333
00:29:28,125 --> 00:29:30,959
American pop music,
American standards,

334
00:29:31,041 --> 00:29:33,458
the late 40s,
all the way to swing,

335
00:29:33,542 --> 00:29:36,041
jazz, the beginnings
of rock and roll,

336
00:29:36,125 --> 00:29:38,959
all of this emanating from
everywhere, everywhere,

337
00:29:39,041 --> 00:29:42,500
including classical music
and opera,

338
00:29:42,583 --> 00:29:45,709
which for me was
very important.

339
00:29:52,792 --> 00:29:54,792
And I still have a relationship

340
00:29:54,875 --> 00:29:56,792
to opera and arias of that time.

341
00:29:56,875 --> 00:29:58,792
I'm always allowing that music

342
00:29:58,875 --> 00:30:00,792
to guide me in daydreaming up

343
00:30:00,875 --> 00:30:02,750
new visual stories
or visual images.

344
00:30:09,041 --> 00:30:11,125
I think of like the antithesis

345
00:30:11,208 --> 00:30:13,041
of what I would want
to see is an opera.

346
00:30:13,125 --> 00:30:15,458
I don't know - I don't know
anything about opera.

347
00:30:15,542 --> 00:30:18,041
My grandmother was
an opera singer.

348
00:30:18,125 --> 00:30:20,709
So it's actually - it's in
my blood to like opera.

349
00:30:20,792 --> 00:30:22,542
Opera is amazing.

350
00:30:22,625 --> 00:30:25,250
It's just not like
a mainstream thing anymore,

351
00:30:25,333 --> 00:30:27,125
and if this concert
could bring it back

352
00:30:27,208 --> 00:30:29,959
and bring it to this
neighborhood, that's amazing.

353
00:30:30,041 --> 00:30:31,625
And I would love to expose
my kids to opera because it's in

354
00:30:31,709 --> 00:30:35,542
their roots and then him too,
he needs some culture too.

355
00:30:35,625 --> 00:30:37,583
I need some culture.
He needs culture.

356
00:30:37,667 --> 00:30:40,417
OK, let's do

357
00:30:40,500 --> 00:30:43,583
Breathe.

358
00:30:46,709 --> 00:30:48,667
For me, music is this language.

359
00:30:48,750 --> 00:30:51,583
I'm not somebody who plays
an instrument,

360
00:30:51,667 --> 00:30:54,875
I'm not somebody
who really understands it,

361
00:30:54,959 --> 00:30:57,792
but it's something
that I'm grateful

362
00:30:57,875 --> 00:30:59,750
that we've instilled
in all our children,

363
00:30:59,834 --> 00:31:03,792
because music is
is this rare language

364
00:31:03,875 --> 00:31:07,709
that is the language
of creativity.

365
00:34:09,583 --> 00:34:12,500
One of the really interesting
things about the oratorio

366
00:34:12,583 --> 00:34:16,500
is that it was an early
showcase for Maria Malibran

367
00:34:16,583 --> 00:34:18,959
and she would become the most
famous and beloved singer

368
00:34:19,041 --> 00:34:22,458
of her time, a singer
who defined her era

369
00:34:22,542 --> 00:34:25,875
and truly was the first
opera diva in the world.

370
00:34:34,959 --> 00:34:37,458
After the concert in 1826,

371
00:34:37,542 --> 00:34:40,166
young women living
in households with pianos

372
00:34:40,250 --> 00:34:42,000
wanted to take singing lessons.

373
00:34:42,083 --> 00:34:45,208
They dreamed of becoming divas
like Maria Malibran.

374
00:35:08,417 --> 00:35:11,250
It does not exist, the person
who can sing

375
00:35:11,333 --> 00:35:14,709
this kind of repertoire
and sings everything.

376
00:35:14,792 --> 00:35:15,834
Yeah.

377
00:35:32,500 --> 00:35:35,041
I'm performing, for example,
Domine Deus.

378
00:35:35,125 --> 00:35:39,000
It's an alto register.
And what are you singing?

379
00:35:39,083 --> 00:35:41,625
Yeah, I sing With Verdu Clad

380
00:35:41,709 --> 00:35:45,583
and Let the Bright Seraphim -
with all the coloratura,

381
00:35:45,667 --> 00:35:50,000
it's high and different
from Domine Deus.

382
00:35:50,083 --> 00:35:51,375
Absolutely different.

383
00:36:04,458 --> 00:36:09,000
Yeah, together,
we make Maria Malibran.

384
00:36:27,333 --> 00:36:30,917
I looked... for years
trying to find...

385
00:37:52,333 --> 00:37:57,375
So Da Ponte found himself
banished once again.

386
00:37:57,458 --> 00:38:00,333
He set out for Paris, hoping
to secure a position

387
00:38:00,417 --> 00:38:02,083
in the court
of Marie Antoinette,

388
00:38:02,166 --> 00:38:06,000
whose brother was actually
Da Ponte's most recent patron.

389
00:38:09,083 --> 00:38:11,125
During his journey,
he must have caught word

390
00:38:11,208 --> 00:38:13,083
that the party was over.

391
00:38:15,250 --> 00:38:19,125
So he altered course for London.

392
00:38:32,417 --> 00:38:34,375
Da Ponte could never
pay his bills

393
00:38:34,458 --> 00:38:37,875
and always wanted
to purchase more books.

394
00:38:37,959 --> 00:38:40,875
He was not a good businessman.

395
00:38:40,959 --> 00:38:42,875
He wasn't able to adapt

396
00:38:42,959 --> 00:38:46,208
and was not able to secure
himself financially,

397
00:38:46,291 --> 00:38:49,542
and after several failed
attempts at business,

398
00:38:49,625 --> 00:38:52,458
he got himself in trouble
yet again

399
00:38:52,542 --> 00:38:55,250
and was forced out of London.

400
00:38:57,709 --> 00:39:00,709
He sets his sights
on a new country

401
00:39:00,792 --> 00:39:03,667
still in its infancy
called America,

402
00:39:03,750 --> 00:39:08,458
and eventually finds his way
right here to New York City.

403
00:39:45,917 --> 00:39:49,875
Da Ponte also seemed
to reconnect with his faith,

404
00:39:49,959 --> 00:39:53,417
putting his life of debauchery
behind him

405
00:39:53,500 --> 00:39:57,166
and actually became a devout
parishioner of this cathedral.

406
00:40:05,500 --> 00:40:09,375
So we're now in the south
cemetery of the basilica here.

407
00:40:09,458 --> 00:40:12,166
This cemetery is unique
because we have

408
00:40:12,250 --> 00:40:14,750
this wall around
the whole perimeter here.

409
00:40:14,834 --> 00:40:18,792
Now, we believe the wall was
built a year after

410
00:40:18,875 --> 00:40:21,750
the burning of St. Mary's Church
down on Grant Street,

411
00:40:21,834 --> 00:40:23,166
burned down
by the nativist gangs,

412
00:40:23,250 --> 00:40:28,500
gangs like the Bowery Boys
that were anti-Catholic and all.

413
00:40:28,583 --> 00:40:31,250
Back in 1844, there was

414
00:40:31,333 --> 00:40:33,750
real reaction
against immigrants coming in.

415
00:40:33,834 --> 00:40:38,250
The nativists, the "Americans"
did not want the Irish in.

416
00:40:38,333 --> 00:40:40,333
This was a movement

417
00:40:40,417 --> 00:40:44,000
of first and second generation
born New Yorkers.

418
00:40:44,083 --> 00:40:46,625
They didn't like immigrants, OK?

419
00:40:46,709 --> 00:40:48,083
The wall was actually built
as a defense point

420
00:40:48,166 --> 00:40:52,709
so that the Irish Catholics
of the cathedral here

421
00:40:52,792 --> 00:40:56,250
could defend this church from
ever being burned down as well.

422
00:40:56,333 --> 00:40:59,875
Archbishop Hughes was
the archbishop of the city,

423
00:40:59,959 --> 00:41:01,333
the Catholic community.

424
00:41:01,417 --> 00:41:06,041
But groups called the Know
Nothings attacked the church,

425
00:41:06,125 --> 00:41:10,083
and the church was defended
by Hughes, actually,

426
00:41:10,166 --> 00:41:13,458
gathering the forces and
putting them behind this wall.

427
00:41:13,542 --> 00:41:15,709
They threatened to burn
the church down

428
00:41:15,792 --> 00:41:18,333
and he was kind of a firebrand -
he threatened them

429
00:41:18,417 --> 00:41:22,041
and it didn't happen.

430
00:41:22,125 --> 00:41:24,375
But they did defend
the church from this wall.

431
00:41:24,458 --> 00:41:26,500
So that gave me a kind -
I don't know.

432
00:41:26,583 --> 00:41:28,959
It gave me - when I was a kid, I
heard these stories and I saw -

433
00:41:29,041 --> 00:41:31,375
now these streets are paved,
but it was all cobblestone.

434
00:41:31,458 --> 00:41:34,917
It's like "Gangs of New York"
going way back.

435
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:37,959
And I wondered - everything
had a story to tell...

436
00:41:38,041 --> 00:41:41,542
the history of the church, not
necessarily what you may feel

437
00:41:41,625 --> 00:41:43,166
about it in terms of
your own personal beliefs,

438
00:41:43,250 --> 00:41:47,250
but the history of this church,
you know, this place was just

439
00:41:47,333 --> 00:41:51,375
breathing stories
and lives long forgotten.

440
00:41:57,166 --> 00:41:59,542
The Irish literally fought
to earn their place here

441
00:41:59,625 --> 00:42:02,542
in the city, so they
became very protective

442
00:42:02,625 --> 00:42:04,959
of the community and they
were very protective

443
00:42:05,041 --> 00:42:07,291
of this church as well...

444
00:42:07,375 --> 00:42:09,959
and then you started
to see a large wave

445
00:42:10,041 --> 00:42:12,750
of Italian immigrants
flooding the city.

446
00:42:14,083 --> 00:42:17,250
But now the Italians come in
and they weren't accepted.

447
00:42:20,333 --> 00:42:22,375
There was no doubt
that there were cultural,

448
00:42:22,458 --> 00:42:25,959
language differences
back then, but, you know,

449
00:42:26,041 --> 00:42:29,250
there was also this wonderful
synthesis that took place.

450
00:42:29,333 --> 00:42:32,667
I think that if you just look
at our church records

451
00:42:32,750 --> 00:42:34,875
and you see the amount
of marriages

452
00:42:34,959 --> 00:42:38,333
that occurred between
Irish and Italians,

453
00:42:38,417 --> 00:42:40,792
I think it tells you
a great deal about

454
00:42:40,875 --> 00:42:42,417
what it is to be
an American.

455
00:43:03,500 --> 00:43:06,583
Everything is
in constant change,

456
00:43:06,667 --> 00:43:10,166
but this church, this basilica

457
00:43:10,250 --> 00:43:14,417
has been and remains
a constant, an anchor.

458
00:43:16,583 --> 00:43:18,625
And it was built by people
who flocked here

459
00:43:18,709 --> 00:43:21,208
to start a new life
in this city,

460
00:43:21,291 --> 00:43:24,667
a city where people still come
from all over the world,

461
00:43:24,750 --> 00:43:27,291
a city that for me has
always been synonymous

462
00:43:27,375 --> 00:43:30,709
with America itself,

463
00:43:30,792 --> 00:43:32,750
America at its very best.

464
00:43:55,667 --> 00:43:57,625
The Henry Erben Organ is one

465
00:43:57,709 --> 00:44:00,250
of America's great
musical treasures.

466
00:44:00,333 --> 00:44:04,542
When it's played by a master
and it hits these grand chords,

467
00:44:04,625 --> 00:44:07,792
I mean, you can feel it
vibrating deep within you.

468
00:44:07,875 --> 00:44:10,500
And it means something special
that my grandparents

469
00:44:10,583 --> 00:44:12,750
and my parents, who also lived
in this neighborhood,

470
00:44:12,834 --> 00:44:14,500
heard and felt
the same sounds

471
00:44:14,583 --> 00:44:18,291
bellowing out of
this massive instrument.

472
00:44:18,375 --> 00:44:20,458
It really connects you
with the history that has

473
00:44:20,542 --> 00:44:23,959
taken place
within these walls

474
00:44:24,041 --> 00:44:25,375
and, of course,
the history of this city.

475
00:44:31,834 --> 00:44:34,792
It's not just
an historical artifact

476
00:44:34,875 --> 00:44:38,792
because these pipes
rang out and resounded

477
00:44:38,875 --> 00:44:40,500
through this entire neighborhood
over the years -

478
00:44:40,583 --> 00:44:44,750
cheering troops
returning from war,

479
00:44:44,834 --> 00:44:47,750
comforting people
in the wake of September 11th

480
00:44:47,834 --> 00:44:50,875
and the sinking of the Titanic,

481
00:44:50,959 --> 00:44:55,750
mourning the loss of presidents
from Grant to Kennedy.

482
00:44:55,834 --> 00:44:57,834
And it still plays today,

483
00:44:57,917 --> 00:45:00,166
it's a living, breathing
instrument that's been played

484
00:45:00,250 --> 00:45:04,417
in joy and in sorrow,
in celebration and in mourning.

485
00:45:14,208 --> 00:45:16,166
Ah.

486
00:45:17,625 --> 00:45:21,041
Yeah, the light's just coming in
through the windows right now.

487
00:45:21,125 --> 00:45:22,583
Wow.

488
00:45:24,542 --> 00:45:27,792
This is the organ,
the Henry Erben organ.

489
00:45:27,875 --> 00:45:30,333
It's about the size
of a three bedroom apartment.

490
00:45:30,417 --> 00:45:31,834
Ha ha!

491
00:45:31,917 --> 00:45:33,542
Yes. Yes.
It's fantastic.

492
00:45:36,500 --> 00:45:39,542
This would be my little
Italian sound.

493
00:45:47,417 --> 00:45:48,542
Ah.

494
00:45:48,625 --> 00:45:50,500
Oops. Ha ha ha!

495
00:45:52,458 --> 00:45:57,208
Yeah, there it goes.
Here we go.

496
00:45:57,291 --> 00:46:00,125
This organ's a hundred
and fifty years old,

497
00:46:00,208 --> 00:46:03,333
and after 150 years,
I turn it on,

498
00:46:03,417 --> 00:46:05,500
I don't know if it's going
to play the way

499
00:46:05,583 --> 00:46:07,625
it played yesterday or not.

500
00:46:09,667 --> 00:46:13,834
The Erben has thousands
of parts.

501
00:46:13,917 --> 00:46:15,542
A lot of them are
made out of wood,

502
00:46:15,625 --> 00:46:18,000
and the wood is dried
and cracked

503
00:46:18,083 --> 00:46:22,500
because of, you know, changes
of environment over the years.

504
00:46:22,583 --> 00:46:26,500
The...
OK, is the coupler on?

505
00:46:26,583 --> 00:46:29,208
Oh, they're all
on the floor there,

506
00:46:29,291 --> 00:46:30,500
Right, they broke off.

507
00:46:30,583 --> 00:46:32,542
The holes are worn so badly

508
00:46:32,625 --> 00:46:35,500
that they're just
breaking in half.

509
00:46:37,750 --> 00:46:41,667
With the leather being
150 years old in a lot of cases,

510
00:46:41,750 --> 00:46:46,083
the pollution it's been
subjected to over the time,

511
00:46:46,166 --> 00:46:50,166
every pipe is just
full of dust,

512
00:46:50,250 --> 00:46:54,834
it's a miracle it plays when I
turn it on and it's just

513
00:46:54,917 --> 00:46:58,500
sort of a matter of time until
it stops playing altogether.

514
00:47:00,917 --> 00:47:03,750
In light of its rarity,
certainly, at this point

515
00:47:03,834 --> 00:47:06,792
and in light
of its historic value,

516
00:47:06,875 --> 00:47:09,458
it's time for a comprehensive
restoration of the instrument.

517
00:47:17,083 --> 00:47:19,667
So I'm thrilled that everything
has worked out the way it has.

518
00:47:19,750 --> 00:47:22,041
The choir here...

519
00:47:22,125 --> 00:47:25,041
The restaging of this oratorio
will be a benefit

520
00:47:25,125 --> 00:47:29,917
for the restoration
of this aging instrument.

521
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:30,625
3, 4.

522
00:47:36,083 --> 00:47:39,000
Music and music making
have their origins

523
00:47:39,083 --> 00:47:42,959
in houses of worship
like this glorious cathedral.

524
00:47:43,041 --> 00:47:45,083
It's a beloved sanctuary for me

525
00:47:45,166 --> 00:47:48,000
and the millions of others who
have walked through its doors

526
00:47:48,083 --> 00:47:50,792
since it was built
almost 200 years ago.

527
00:47:50,875 --> 00:47:54,250
And this performance,
like this cathedral

528
00:47:54,333 --> 00:47:56,750
and the people working
to maintain its relevance

529
00:47:56,834 --> 00:47:59,667
and traditions,
reinforces the importance

530
00:47:59,750 --> 00:48:03,500
of nurturing
the cross-cultural bridges

531
00:48:03,583 --> 00:48:05,542
that make this city
so vibrant and dynamic.

532
00:48:32,959 --> 00:48:35,959
Lorenzo Da Ponte's
whirlwind of a life

533
00:48:36,041 --> 00:48:38,667
landed him right here
in New York City.

534
00:48:38,750 --> 00:48:41,750
His financial woes
followed him

535
00:48:41,834 --> 00:48:44,542
as he fled bankruptcy
three more times

536
00:48:44,625 --> 00:48:49,500
before finding stability by
giving Italian language lessons.

537
00:48:51,667 --> 00:48:55,542
Sharing his Italian culture
must have been an addiction

538
00:48:55,625 --> 00:48:58,500
for him because it consumed
the rest of his life.

539
00:49:00,750 --> 00:49:03,750
He found his way into the elite
social scene of New York City,

540
00:49:03,834 --> 00:49:06,208
no doubt thanks to his charm

541
00:49:06,291 --> 00:49:07,709
and stories of his life
of adventures.

542
00:49:42,959 --> 00:49:45,750
Da Ponte was
a tireless promoter

543
00:49:45,834 --> 00:49:47,792
of Italian culture,

544
00:49:47,875 --> 00:49:50,333
and that included
Italian opera.

545
00:49:50,417 --> 00:49:53,792
Those efforts eventually
led to Da Ponte

546
00:49:53,875 --> 00:49:56,375
staging the 1826 oratorio.

547
00:50:19,458 --> 00:50:22,333
He lived in the neighborhood
and arranged

548
00:50:22,417 --> 00:50:24,750
to put on a performance
of music.

549
00:50:24,834 --> 00:50:26,792
Those very notes resounded
in these very halls

550
00:50:26,875 --> 00:50:30,000
back in 1826

551
00:50:30,083 --> 00:50:31,709
and brought us here tonight.

552
00:53:37,375 --> 00:53:39,959
In 1826, people were
transformed

553
00:53:40,041 --> 00:53:41,834
by the experience
of this music,

554
00:53:41,917 --> 00:53:46,375
so it set the stage
for this cultural awakening

555
00:53:46,458 --> 00:53:51,166
that accompanied the commercial
might of New York City.

556
00:53:51,250 --> 00:53:53,667
"Music is beginning
to do wonders

557
00:53:53,750 --> 00:53:56,667
among the inhabitants
of our gay city."

558
00:53:56,750 --> 00:53:59,125
Those words were written
after the concert

559
00:53:59,208 --> 00:54:01,834
for an editorial in
the newspaper.

560
00:54:01,917 --> 00:54:04,291
It was a real cultural awakening
in the city of New York,

561
00:54:04,375 --> 00:54:07,083
and it extended beyond music
to all the arts.

562
00:54:15,417 --> 00:54:17,458
I'd like to think this will be

563
00:54:17,542 --> 00:54:21,583
an historic stepping stone
to another creative moment,

564
00:54:21,667 --> 00:54:25,041
some new venture artistically
and spiritually.

565
00:55:06,458 --> 00:55:09,417
Music gives a soul
to the universe

566
00:55:09,500 --> 00:55:11,166
and life to everything.