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.

大衛•凱恩斯，《星期日泰晤士報》和《旁觀者》的首席樂評。他曾是加州大學的傑齣訪問教授、聖莫尼卡的蓋蒂藝術中心的訪問學者，以及牛津大學莫頓學院的訪問教師。他所撰寫的兩捲本柏遼茲傳記是柏遼茲研究中的權威性著作，並且獲得瞭惠布瑞特傳記奬、非虛構類年度圖書奬塞繆爾•約翰遜奬，以及皇傢愛樂協會奬。他是切爾西歌劇院的共同創始人，同時也是索林頓演奏傢樂團的創建者和指揮。

《埃剋托•柏遼茲迴憶錄》（編譯）

《迴應：音樂隨筆與評論》

《<魔笛>與<法斯塔夫>》

《英國國傢歌劇指南》（閤著）

《柏遼茲：一個藝術傢的煉就，1803—1832》（捲一）

《柏遼茲：苦耕與偉業，1832—1869》（捲二）

作者曾獲惠布瑞特傳記奬、 非虛構類年度圖書奬塞繆爾•約翰遜奬

譯者簡介:

謝瑛華，畢業於復旦大學，現從事編輯齣版工作，曾參與翻譯《音樂的故事》，策劃齣版瞭《莫紮特•1791年》《貝多芬•1804年》等藝術人文係列讀物。