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<\/a><\/p>\nVienna Nocturne: A Novel by Vivien Shotwell<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n FIC SHOTWELL, V<\/p>\n In late-eighteenth-century London, a young girl takes her first singing lessons with a mysterious castrato in exile. Her life is forever changed. Having learned everything he can teach her, Anna leaves behind all the security and familiarity of home and journeys to Naples and Venice to struggle and triumph in Italy\u2019s greatest opera houses. Only sixteen, she finds herself in an intoxicating world of theaters, nobility, and vice, overwhelmed by her newfound freedom and fame. Her first bitter experience of love and heartbreak inevitably follows.<\/p>\n Within a few years, Anna is invited to sing in Vienna, the City of Music, by the emperor himself. There, in a teasing game of theft and play, Anna first meets Mozart, a young virtuoso pianist and striving, prodigiously talented composer. They are matched in intellect and talent, and an immediate and undeniable charge occurs between the two, despite both being married to others.<\/p>\n As her star rises in Vienna and her personal life deteriorates, Anna experiences an ultimate crisis. During this trying time, her only light is Mozart: his energy, his determination for her, and his art. She, in turn, becomes his hope and inspiration, and his joy, as he writes for her some of his most exquisite and enduring arias\u2014music that will live on as his masterworks.<\/p>\n Mozart: A Life by Paul Johnson<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n 92 MOZART, W JOH<\/p>\n Mozart\u2019s music has enthralled listeners for centuries. In this brilliant biography, acclaimed historian Paul Johnson draws upon his expert knowledge of the era and Mozart\u2019s own private letters to conjure Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\u2019s life and times in rich detail. Johnson charts Mozart\u2019s life from age three through to his later years\u2014when he penned The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.<\/i> Along the way, Johnson challenges some of the popular myths that cloud Mozart\u2019s image: his allegedly tempestuous personal relationships and supposedly bitter rivalry with Salieri, as well as the notion that he was desperately impoverished when he died. The result\u2014a bold, invigorating portrait of one of the most popular and influential composers of all time\u2014is a welcome addition to Johnson\u2019s extraordinary body of work and makes a perfect gift for classical music lovers and fans of biographies.<\/p>\n After the book discussion, the Andante Quartet will be performing a selection of Mozart’s quartets at the Linda Vista Branch Library at 3 PM<\/strong>. No registration is required and the event is open to all ages.<\/p>\n