Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi (1720-1806) is best known for his plays that have famously been adapted into opera librettos. Puccini's final opera, Turandot, was based on a play by Gozzi. Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges is also based on a Gozzi play. Richard Wagner's first opera, Die Feen, is based on Gozzi's La Donna Serpente. Mozart's The Magic Flute contains many elements that are similar to Gozzi's plays.

Gozzi is well known for reviving commedia dell'arte, an ancient form of Italian improvisational theater that had fallen out of favor before his time. This is the first full biography in English of the most successful playwright in 18th century Venice.