Lorenzo Da Ponte

Synopsis

In 1805, The Year That Wordsworth Completed The Prelude And Nelson Defeated The French At Trafalgar, Lorenzo Da Ponte Opened A Grocery Shop In New York. In The First Forty Years Of His Life He Had Converted From Judaism To Christianity, Been A Poet, Priest, Lover And Libertine (he Was Expelled From Venice Twice), A Friend Of Casanova, Collaborator Then Enemy Of Salieri, A Favourite Of Emperor Joseph Ii, And Ultimately The Librettist For Three Of Mozart's Most Sublime Operas - The Marriage Of Figaro, Cosi Fan Tutte And Don Giovanni. By The End Of His Life He Had Founded New York's First Opera House And Achieved His Second Life's Ambition, To Become The First Professor Of Italian At Columbia University. Da Ponte Loved Wholeheartedly But Recklessly, Yet Had The Wit To Woo And Win His Resourceful And Long-suffering English Wife Nancy. An Inspired Innovator And Impresario, He Was A Hopeless Businessman, And In London Lost All His Money (a Murky Story Involving Bills Of Exchange And A Man Named 'opera Taylor'). What Was Worse, He Almost Lost Nancy As Well, Who Set Off To The New World To Make A New Life. Brokenhearted, Da Ponte Followed Her After Less Than A Year And Their American Adventure Began. Published In Mozart's 250th Anniversary Year, Rodney Bolt's Biography Of Lorenzo Da Ponte Does Full And Entertaining Justice To A Larger-than-life Character And A Rich And Captivating Period In History.--book Jacket. Rodney Bolt. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [335]-411) And Index.