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Lorenzo
Da Ponte
The
Life and Times of Mozart's Librettist
Sheila
Hodges
FOREWORD
BY H. C. ROBBINS LANDON
"Hodges . . . shows us a lover of language, a scholar,
contradictory, big-hearted, as swift and many-sided as his libretti."—Publishers
Weekly
Three of the greatest operas ever written—The
Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan
tutte—join the exquisite music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
with the perfectly matched libretti of Lorenzo Da Ponte. Da Ponte's
own long life (1749–1838), however, was more fantastic than
any opera plot. A poor Jew who became a Catholic priest; a priest
who became a young gambler and rake; a teacher, poet, and librettist
of genius who became a Pennsylvania greengrocer; an impoverished
immigrant to America who became professor of Italian at Columbia
University—wherever Da Ponte went, he arrived a penniless
fugitive and made a new and eventful life. Sheila Hodges follows
him from the last glittering years of the Venetian Republic to
the Vienna of Mozart and Salieri, and from George III's London
to New York City.
"Anyone
with literary, biographical, musical, or historical interests
will delight in this well-written and vivid portrayal of a multifaceted
man."—John Greenhalgh, Classical Music
"Hodges,
with the aid of much archival research . . . shows us a lover
of language, a scholar, contradictory, big-hearted, as swift
and many-sided as his libretti."—Publishers Weekly
Sheila Hodges is a writer living in London and author
of eight books, as well as articles published in Opera Quarterly,
Music Review, and other journals. She was formerly in charge
of the editorial department at the publishing house of Victor
Gollancz, where she edited all of Daphne du Maurier's books in
the last forty years of the author's life.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
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April
2002
288 pp. 18 b/w photos
6 x 9
ISBN 0-299-17874-9 Paper $19.95 t
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