Summary
Bolt, a travel writer and former theater director, provides a biography of Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838). Da Ponte collaborated with Mozart and eventually moved to America and became a bookseller and professor of Italian at Columbia U. Tracing both his life and career, Bolt examines the production of the Mozart operas and the relationship between composer and librettist, Da Ponte's friendship with Casanova, his early life as a priest, overall career in opera, and writings. Annotation©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Publishers Weekly Review
Starred Review. Englishman Bolt, who has written on Christopher Marlowe (History Play), relishes the telling of the poor motherless Jewish boy from Venice's ghetto, born Emanuele Conegliano, whose father converted the family to Christianity in 1763 in an attempt to improve his fortunes. Renamed Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749 1838), after the bishop who converted him, the boy was schooled at a seminary and became a scholarly poet whose amatory entanglements in Venice eventually got him deported. Using his legendary wit and charm, Da Ponte insinuated himself into the graces of Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II, who established an Italian opera company in Vienna, attracting such young composers as Salieri and Mozart. Although he had never written a libretto, Da Ponte was appointed theater poet, which sparked a genius collaboration with Mozart on operas such as Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte. With the emperor's death in 1790, Da Ponte again fled town with his young English bride, Nancy Grahl; he eventually sailed to America, to become a New York grocer, businessman and professor of Italian at Columbia College. Reading Bolt's lively narrative of Da Ponte's life from the ghetto of Venice to the sparkling opera houses of Europe is pure pleasure. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc.
Copyright Reed Business Information
