In this eloquent work of historical reconstruction Davenport lets her characters tell their own stories, and accompanies her narrative with letters and other original documents. She builds from Mozart's infancy toward the climactic meeting in 1787 of Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte and Casanova in Prague, when Don Giovanni was being written, to Mozart's tragically early death. The result is a biography of such commanding stature that it has remained unassailable since its publication in 1932.