David Cairns - winner of the Whitbread Biography Award and the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction - has spent his life immersed in Mozart's music, both as a performer and as a listener. This intimate biography sheds new and important light on the composer by placing his operas in the context of his life and his complete musical output. Mozart's unusual childhood as a musical prodigy touring Europe as a performer from an early age is well known. But even more remarkable is that the genius grew up to produce works of increasing maturity and originality.Cairns unravels the many myths surrounding Mozart to reveal the opinionated, passionate, and exceptionally intelligent man behind the legend. Cairns shows that familiarity with the operas can transform our perception of Mozart's art. He demonstrates that the composer's approach to composition was that of a consummate dramatist. Using the operas as his guide, he traces the steady deepening of Mozart's musical style from his beginnings as a child prodigy, through his coming of age with, in Cairns' opinion, the most romantic and forward-looking of all Mozart's operas, Idomeneo. He discusses Mozart's later genius as displayed in the three comic operas "The Marriage of Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Cosi fan tutte", and in "The Magic Flute", the final and greatest triumph of his career.

大卫•凯恩斯，《星期日泰晤士报》和《旁观者》的首席乐评。他曾是加州大学的杰出访问教授、圣莫尼卡的盖蒂艺术中心的访问学者，以及牛津大学莫顿学院的访问教师。他所撰写的两卷本柏辽兹传记是柏辽兹研究中的权威性著作，并且获得了惠布瑞特传记奖、非虚构类年度图书奖塞缪尔•约翰逊奖，以及皇家爱乐协会奖。他是切尔西歌剧院的共同创始人，同时也是索林顿演奏家乐团的创建者和指挥。

《埃克托•柏辽兹回忆录》（编译）

《回应：音乐随笔与评论》

《<魔笛>与<法斯塔夫>》

《英国国家歌剧指南》（合著）

《柏辽兹：一个艺术家的炼就，1803—1832》（卷一）

《柏辽兹：苦耕与伟业，1832—1869》（卷二）

作者曾获惠布瑞特传记奖、 非虚构类年度图书奖塞缪尔•约翰逊奖

译者简介:

谢瑛华，毕业于复旦大学，现从事编辑出版工作，曾参与翻译《音乐的故事》，策划出版了《莫扎特•1791年》《贝多芬•1804年》等艺术人文系列读物。