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Article: Portrait of a phoenix; Discovering the poet who gave Mozart's operas their words.(BOOKS)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- August 13, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Washington Times LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Marion Elizabeth Rodgers , SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
In this 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, you may hear words from the opera "Don Giovanni" attributed unfairly, as it turns out to Mozart. In the world of popular musicals, lyricist and composer receive equal billing. In opera, the writer is all but ignored.
Now, Rodney Bolt redresses the imbalance in his colorful new book, "The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte," a lively portrait of a poet, priest and womanizer who wrote the words to some of the greatest operas in history and ended his days as a grocer in New York City.
Born in 1749, in a ...