GIACOMO CASANOVA

When Carnival first began it was celebrated from December 26 and reached its climax the day before Ash Wednesday, also known as "Mardi Gras". During the period of Carnival it seems that every excess was permitted and the fact that everyone wore masks seemed to abolish all social division. All the campi were thronged with people intent on partying and carousing, singing, dancing and playing games. The most common costume (the bałtta) was composed of a black silk hood, a lace cape, a voluminous cloak (the tabarro), and a three-cornered hat and a white mask that completely covered the wearer's face. This allowed revelers to go around the city incognito. It was useful to go to casini, places where you could play games of chance.
Since 1980 the celebration of Carnival in Venice has gained popularity. People come from the world over to attend private and public masked balls and masked revelers of all ages invade the campi where music and dancing continues nearly day and night. Theatrical performances and an array of ancient games are organized for the amusement of Venetians and visitors alike.

Carnival, or Carnevale, is Venice's answer to Mardi Gras and Fasching. For a 10-day period before Lent each winter, tourists flood the city for an orgy of pageants, commedia dell'arte,concerts, balls, and masked self-display until Shrove Tuesday signals an end to the party. Carnevale isn't just a Venetian tradition; similar festivities occur throughout much of the Roman Catholic world, including other cities in Italy. The term "Carnevale" comes from the Latin for "farewell to meat" and suggests a good-bye party for the steaks and stews that Catholics traditionally gave up during the weeks of fasting before Easter. The masquerade aspect of Carnival is even older: the Romans celebrated winter with a fertility festival where masks were worn by citizens and slaves alike.

Bursting with the light and life of eighteenth-century Prague, Anthony Rudel's captivating debut novel -- based on a historical event -- resurrects three of the most fascinating personalities of all time and a world of romance and imagination. In October 1787, sixty-two-year-old Giacomo Casanova, the notorious lover, and thirty-one-year-old Wolfgang Mozart, the immortal composer, are believed to have met in a Prague coffeehouse to discuss a revolutionary new opera based on the life of the infamous rake Don Juan. From this mere footnote in history, Anthony Rudel has spun a wondrous tale in which the two, along with the poet Lorenzo Da Ponte, work against the clock to complete the operatic masterpiece. A struggle of wills and desires ensues, winding its way through glittering society balls, rustic old-town inns, and majestic opera houses. It is a time of artistic fervor, philosophical awakening, deep friendship, and true love. Indeed, Mozart's fairy-tale marriage to the beautiful Constanze hangs in the balance. In the eleventh hour, the correspondence of an imprisoned French nobleman of questionable sanity illuminates the opera's destiny: the Marquis de Sade writes from his asylum cell to implore the trio to unite in support of Don Giovanni's theme of personal freedom. The flurry of incendiary artistry and explosive clashes builds to the opera's opening night, a crescendo of inspiration, passionate devotion to liberty, and renewed bonds of love. Combining the ingenious storytelling of the best historical novelists with the breathtaking, Old World European atmosphere of the Oscar-winning Amadeus and the Oscar-nominated Quills, Anthony Rudel has mined a glorious past for this fast-paced and sublimely entertaining first novel.