In June 1805 a 56-year-old Italian immigrant disembarked to Philadelphia carrying only a violin. Before dying in New York 23 years later, he would find New World respectability 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 Abbe 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. But his self-assurance also excited mistrust. When the first Italian opera was performed in New York in 1825, he had the nerve to claim he had written it. Like the memoirs he wrote to pay off more debts, the old man was constantly full of tall stories. The varied 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 end in New York, where today he lies buried in an unmarked grave in one of the world's largest cemeteries.
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'Anything biographical or musical that Anthony Holden writes is automatically worth reading, and this exquisitely written book sees him dicourse eruditely on both topics.' -- Alex Larman OBSERVER 'Clear, impartial, accessible and concise' -- Ross Leckie THE TIMES 'An enjoyable biography of a remarkable man' THE SUNDAY TIMES
About the Author
Anthony Holden is known for his translating of opera libretti and is currently music critic of The Observer.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Long and Fascinating Life,
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This review is from: The Man Who Wrote Mozart: The Extraordinary Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte (Paperback)
This is a highly readable book about a man whose name is very familiar to music lovers, even if details of his life are not so well-known. Probably the most enjoyable sections of the book deal with his working with Mozart, who is by far the more interesting of the duo, but his later life when he was living in America is certainly unexpected and surprising. The book reads rather like a modern stage biography of a man who knew everyone who was anyone.
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