Casanova's tally of approximately sexual partners hardly compares with the legendary 1, of his mythical alter ego, Don Giovanni, or the French detective novelist Georges Simenon's claim of 10, But the number and nature of Casanova's sexual encounters, Kelly argues, pale into insignificance when compared with the candid and psychologically nuanced way in which he wrote about it.
Much more remarkable is the way he wrote about it, and how he was one of the first authors to place sexuality in the kind of close connection with personality that now, since Freud, we take for granted. Casanova, who felt his sexual identity to one of the most important parts of his personality, used on a number of occasions the word "soul" to describe, not just his sexual personality, but even his sexual organ.
He was also, Kelly argues, a key figure in history of contraception, writing at length bout the psychology of trying to incorporate, or convince one's partner to incorporate, the bulky and cumbersome 18th-century condom into the sexual act. He refers to it at times as a 'prophylactic against anxiety'. Kelly is also keen to highlight the possible involvement of Casanova in the representation of his mythical soulmate in Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte's Don Giovanni.
Claiming to reveal evidence of Casanova's involvement in the preparation of the opera's libretto, Kelly argues that two drafts of a revised section of the libretto in Casanova's hand and on presentation paper are evidence of an involvement the hasty revisions of the opera prior to its first performance in Prague, However, this document and the possibility of Casanova's involvement with the libretto has been studied extensively by musicologists who have all concluded the link to be unlikely.
Julian Rushton, author of a study of Don Giovanni and emeritus professor of music at Liverpool University, says the purpose of Casanova's redrafting of the libretto was indeed a mystery, but that he knew "of no evidence to suppose that they were made before the opera was composed. The relevant scene was composed earlier in Vienna and if any improvisation took place in Prague it concerned the second finale [and not the passage in question].
But if Casanova's involvement in the final version of Da Ponte's libretto for Don Giovanni is wishful thinking, his own literary output is nonetheless extraordinary. In addition to the vast History of My Life, he wrote a total of 42 books and plays, including a translation of the Iliad, a five-volume science-fiction novel, mathematical treatises and opera libretti. He was also a committed follower of the Kabbalah, the mystical Jewish cult holding a deep fascination for him to the extent that he attributed his life's successes to its power.
Kelly's researches in the Prague and other archives, and among the records of the Venetian inquisition, which investigated Casanova, have also uncovered recipe books, evidence of self-prostitution, the development in later life of a sexual interest in young girls, and hitherto undiscussed journals relating the content of his dream life. He seems to have been writing, and on the advice of his doctor as a cure for melancholy, for himself, as way of reaffirming himself in the realm of the senses. The gang is charged with a litany of crimes, including the killing in September of a year-old boy in Poughkeepsie and defrauding programs meant for people suffering economic hardship because of the pandemic.
The charges stemmed, in part, from six wiretaps involving the gang, prosecutors said. Casanova, 34, turned himself in to the FBI late Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and firearms possession. He is not charged with killing the child. Attorney in Manhattan, said in a news release this week.
The criminal charges are not the first Casanova has faced. He previously served nearly eight years in prison in New York for robbery. Last year, Casanova was dropped from the lineup of a hip-hop festival after New York City police sent the organizers of the event a letter citing safety concerns if he and four other rappers were to take the stage, The New York Times reported. Casanova had a long-running feud with fellow Brooklyn rapper Tekashi69, then a member of the rival Nine Trey Gansta Bloods, that resulted in a confrontation at the Barclays Center in April in which a gunshot was fired.
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