Mozart's Rabbi

Lorenzo Da Ponte Poet Scholar Librettist And Self-Proclaimed Champion Of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Finds Himself At The End Of The Eighteenth Century A Financial And Artistic Failure. A Conversation With His Friend Casanova Inspires Him To Restore Both His Fortune And Reputation In America. After A Dispiriting Voyage He Lands In New York And In A Bookshop On Broadway Meets And Befriends Clement Moore Influential Clergyman And Future Author Of Night Before Christmas. Moore Introduces His Foreign Genius To Culture-Starved New Yorkers To Whom Da Ponte Recalls His Experiences Professional And Personal Of Mozart. With Moore As His American Patron Da Ponte Founds A School For Young Gentlemen And Opens To Them The Classics And The World Of Italian Literature. He Becomes A Member Of A Literary Club And Is Induced To Fight A Duel With A Jealous Fellow Member And Would-Be Critic. He Survives The Historic Cholera Epidemic In New York In The 1820S And Finally Finds His Life- Ambition In America By Bringing Opera Performances To New York And Laying The Foundations For The First Theater In The Country Built Exclusively For Opera.