Daniel Mendelsohn is a writer, translator, and professor of literature at Bard College. His most recent book is An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic which, along with the memoir The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity, are personal favorites of mine. He is also deeply attuned to classical music. I met him one afternoon in New York. Curled up in a red chair by the window of his apartment, he talked about favorite recordings, opera plots, and the indefinable sense of authority in art.
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