Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte

Plot and counterplot lie at the heart of Don Giovanni, Cos fan tutte, and The Marriage of Figaro, the three brilliant libretti that Lorenzo Da Ponte prepared for Mozart. They were also central to Da Ponte's own extraordinary life. His Memoirs record a fantastic variety of romantic, political, and professional intrigues, and tell of meetings with a host of remarkable men. In a life that took him from the canals of Venice to the streets of New York, Da Ponte was at different times priest, professional gambler, proprietor of a bordello, political agitator, court poet, impresario, grocery store owner, and the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia University. His Memoirs, a minor classic of Italian literature, are the picaresque and engrossing story of a man of enormous talent and unsurpassed flair who was, above all, an indefatigable survivor.

"I shall speak of things . . . so singular in their oddity as in some manner to instruct, or at least entertain, without wearying." --Lorenzo da Ponte

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Published: 05/31/2000
ISBN: 9780940322356
Pages: 472
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 7.95h x 4.96w x 1.33d

Review Citations: Library Journal 06/01/2000 pg. 212
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2000 pg. 144