On June 4, 1805, a ship from London sailed into the harbor of Philadelphia, and a toothless 56-year-old Italian man disembarked. He was completely broke, having gambled away all his money on the two-month passage from Europe, so he borrowed $32 to pay the customs taxes on his violin, his tea urn, his carpet and his trunk of Italian literature. An observer at the scene would never have guessed that here stood one of the greatest librettists in the history of music, but sure enough, it was Lorenzo Da Ponte, a name that would be forever yoked to the beloved...