Lorenzo Da Ponte

By the author of the renowned History Play Lorenzo Da Ponte has been shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography

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". This is a biography of a character and a portrait of four cities.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.