The subject of this pictorial and textual monograph is the relationship between opera and the enlightenment in Josephine Vienna of the 1780s. At that time Lorenzo Da Ponte was a poet at the imperial theater and wrote many librettos for  the opera stage, including the three great  operas for Mozart that form the heart of this volume: Le  nozze  di  Figaro, Don Giovanni, and  Cosė  fan  tutte .<br>
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 The book emerged from three exhibitions mounted by the Da Ponte Institute in the Mahler Room of the Vienna State Opera. A rare amalgam of pictures, quotations, and explanatory notes that sheds new light on this exciting decade.<br>