{"product_id":"the-librettist-of-venice-the-remarkable-life-of-lorenzo-da-ponte-mozarts-poet-casanovas-friend-and-italian-operas-impresario-in-america-9781596911185","title":"The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte  Mozart's Poet  Casanova's Friend  and Italian Opera's Impresario in America","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe operatic life of the librettist for Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro.  In 1805  Lorenzo Da Ponte was the proprietor of a small grocery store in New York. But since his birth into an Italian Jewish family in 1749  he had already been a priest  a poet  the lover of many women  a scandalous Enlightenment thinker banned from teaching in Venice  the librettist for three of Mozarts most sublime operas  a collaborator with Salieri  a friend of Casanova  and a favorite of Emperor Joseph II. He would go on to establish New York Citys first opera house and be the first professor of Italian at Columbia University. An inspired innovator but a hopeless businessman  who loved with wholehearted loyalty and recklessness  Da Ponte was one of the early immigrants to live out the American dream.  In Rodney Bolts rollicking and extensively researched biography  Da Pontes picaresque life takes readers from Old World courts and the back streets of Venice  Vienna  and London to the New World promise of New York City. Two hundred and fifty years after Mozarts birth  the life and legacy of his librettist Da Ponte are as astonishing as ever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647574564917,"sku":"ByrdShop_1596911182","price":28.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781596911185.jpg?v=1781693637","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-librettist-of-venice-the-remarkable-life-of-lorenzo-da-ponte-mozarts-poet-casanovas-friend-and-italian-operas-impresario-in-america-9781596911185","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}