The Man Who Wrote Mozart The Extraordinary Life Of Lorenzo Da Ponte

“During his picaresque, chameleon career, [Da Ponte] was always on the move. Jew and Catholic, priest and womaniser, poet and bankrupt, shopkeeper and university professor, he began his long life in and around Venice and ended it in New York. It is hard to imagine a more flamboyant personal history, a gift to the biographer Anthony Holden, who relishes his subject’s sheer exuberance.” — Lucasta Miller, The Guardian “Lorenzo da Ponte was, at various times, a Catholic priest, a gambler, a philanderer, an entrepreneur, a poet, a friend of Casanova, an enemy of the Venetian state, a teacher, a shopkeeper, a courtier and a troublemaker. The tangled yarn of his life would be worth spinning even had he not also written the libretto for Mozart’s three greatest operas. In The Man Who Wrote Mozart, Anthony Holden unravels the full nine decades of Da Ponte’s picaresque life, eight of which did not involve his friend Wolfgang... Holden’s narrative verve spans continents and centuries. His life of Da Ponte is engrossing and bound to be definitive.” — Rafael Behr, The Guardian “[T]he writer who evokes Mozart’s world most vividly - albeit obliquely - is the journalist and music critic Anthony Holden... Da Ponte’s life... is certainly a rollicking yarn... a riproaring read.” — Hugh Canning, Sunday Times “Anthony Holden writes extremely well, telling the racy story energetically... He provides a rattlingly good read, filled with vivid anecdotes.” — Spectator “Anthony Holden steers through this incredible picaresque story with elan, well paced gusto and a gentle, if not uncritical, eye... Anthony Holden’s book is a fine achievement.” — The Oldie “Anthony Holden’s... biography, brings assiduous new research to Da Ponte’s early and late life and tells his story in journalistic deadpan.” — The Tablet “Holden’s companionable new biography is a refreshing take on an old story.” — Mail on Sunday “[E]ntertaining.” — The Herald “He writes with a sincere enthusiasm about the creative partnership with Mozart.” — Sunday Telegraph “The trajectory of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s life was remarkable.” — London Review of Books “This is a tale of a literary adventurer, full of mystery... Holden does his readers a favour by making his subject interesting to an audience beyond opera lovers.” — Sunday Business Post “[A] genuine pleasure. At turns amusing, poignant and instructive, it engagingly captures the chemistry between librettist and composer that produced those masterpieces of the operatic repertoire.” — Irish Times “Phew! The only problem with this sparkling biography is keeping up with the headlong pace set by what was really an extraordinary life.” — Classic FM Magazine “Anything biographical or musical that Anthony Holden writes is automatically worth reading, and this exquisitely written book sees him discourse eruditely on both topics.” — Observer “Clear, impartial, accessible and concise.” — The Times “An enjoyable biography of a remarkable man.” — The Sunday Times “Anthony Holden’s compelling narrative does justice to the man and to the highs and lows of his unusually varied career.” — Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

In June 1805, a 56-year-old Italian immigrant disembarked in Philadelphia carrying only a violin. Before dying in New York 23 years later, in his ninetieth year, he would find New World respectability as a bookseller, then as the first Professor of Italian at Columbia University. For now, he set up shop as a grocer. There was always an air of mystery about the Abbé Lorenzo da Ponte. A scholarly poet, teacher and priest, with a devoted wife, he also had a reputation as a womanizer. Da Ponte charmed all he met, pioneering the place of Italian music in American life. The many lives of Lorenzo da Ponte - librettist of Mozart's three great operas, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte - begin in Venice, linger in Vienna and London and finish in New York, where today he lies buried in an unmarked grave in the world's largest cemetery. --book jacket.

Chronicles the colorful life and times of Lorenzo da Ponte, the librettist for Mozart's acclaimed operas, including Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, a man who was a friend of Casanova, ex-priest, poet, notorious lover, founder of New York's first opera house, the first professor of Italian at Columbia University, and New York shop owner.

This is the revised edition of April FitzLyon's celebrated biography of Mozart's librettist, who provided the brilliant, witty texts for The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. Born a Jew in the Republic of Venice, Da Ponte became a Christian before involving himself in political and amorous intrigue and having to flee, like his friend Casanova, to Vienna, pursued by both the Inquisition and jealous husbands. As court poet to Joseph II he succeeded Metastasio and worked with many composers, until his escapades forced him to move on to London, where he managed the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. After a series of financial disasters, he moved to New York, where he worked several jobs before becoming a professor at Columbia. He helped to introduce Italian opera to the USA and in old age wrote his notoriously unreliable memoirs.This fascinating portrait provides a colourful picture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century life in four capitals, combining musical and literary history with an account of the social life of the period.

The memoirs of the man who wrote the libretti for three of Mozart's best operas.

1929. Edited and annotated by Arthur Livingston. The fascinating memoirs of the Italian poet, librettist, and pioneer in spreading Italian culture in the United States. Forced to leave Venice and Vienna due to scandals, he wandered through Europe, lived in London and then came to the US where he spent the rest of his life as a celebrated teacher of Italian language and culture (except for an unsuccessful period spent in Pennsylvania selling medicines). He taught nearly 2,000 private pupils and was appointed professor of Italian language and literature at Columbia in 1830.

By the time he was forty, Lorenzo Da Ponte had been a poet, priest, lover and libertine, a friend of Casanova, collaborator then enemy of Salieri, and ultimately the librettist for three of Mozart's most sublime operas - The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte and Don Giovanni. After losing all his money and the woman he loved he started afresh in New York, and by the end of his life he had founded its first opera house and become a university professor. Lorenzo Da Ponte is a fascinating and entertaining biography of a larger-than-life character, and a vibrant portrait of four cities and four changing eras of history.

Eminent historian Paul Johnson dazzles with a rich, succinct portrait of Mozart and his music As he’s done in Napoleon, Churchill, Jesus, and Darwin, acclaimed historian and author Paul Johnson here offers a concise, illuminating biography of Mozart. Johnson’s focus is on the music—Mozart’s wondrous output of composition and his uncanny gift for instrumentation. Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained copyist could write in a lifetime. Mozart’s gift and skill with instruments was also remarkable as he mastered all of them except the harp. For example, no sooner had the clarinet been invented and introduced than Mozart began playing and composing for it. In addition to his many insights into Mozart’s music, Johnson also challenges the many myths that have followed Mozart, including those about the composer’s health, wealth, religion, and relationships. Always engaging, Johnson offers readers and music lovers a superb examination of Mozart and his glorious music, which is still performed every day in concert halls and opera houses around the world.