Steampunk Opera: Il Trovatore

Who's looking forward to the July 5th live broadcast out of the Bayerische Staatsoper? This girl right here. Even if unser Jonas is looking rather thin and peaky.

In the Cards: "The Stockholm Octavo"

The assassination of Sweden's Gustav III may be one of the more outrageous events of the turbulent 1790s, but it usually falls into shadow when compared to the execution of France's Louis XVI less than one year later. Indeed, outside of the realm of historians and Verdi fans, few people in day to day life realize that Sweden had a king who was shot at a masked ball at the Royal Swedish Opera. (Sadly, the original building was demolished in 1892, showing that man's desire to knock down beautiful old buildings and replace them with dubious new ones is not a new trait.)

Gustav III of Sweden met his fate in March 1792, when he was shot in the back and died days later of septicemia. Gustav had come to the throne twenty years earlier, after the death of his father, staged a coup against the reigning aristocracy, and reformed the country's political systems so completely that by the 1790s, there were two major camps vying for power-Royalists and Patriots (the latter made up of the former ruling aristocrats that believed their country was, for lack of a better term, going to hell in a handbasket). The situation had reached a boiling point by the time of Gustav's death, and it is this cauldron sedition and treachery that makes up the background of Karen Engelmann's debut novel, The Stockholm Octavo.

The plot of Verdi's Un ballo in Maschera revolves around a love-triangle of king-soprano-assassin and, to shake censors concerned about regicide in an unstable political climate, is set in Boston. The Stockholm Octavo, takes the same story and twists it a little. Instead of a sympathetic king or courtier, we have a lowly custom's officer with an interest in card games, women, and the Occult.

Emil Larsson, customs officer and card sharp, is ordered by his superiors to find a wife in order to maintain his position. To this end, he consults Sofia Sparrow, owner of an exclusive gambling salon and a seer. She lays out an octavo for Emil: a circle of eight cards that represent the people who will influence his path to happiness and love. In his quest to find the eight people represented in the cards, Emil is thrown into a dangerous world of politics, revenge, hidden loyalties, poison, and madness. We meet The Uzanne, a baroness and fan collector with a hatred for the autocratic Gustav that is so intense it borders on madness; a runaway apothecary with working knowledge of semi-poisonous soporifics, a dedicated fan maker, a Seer (based on a real soothsayer, Madame Arvidson, the Ulrica of the opera), and numerous functionaries and hangers-on.

Emil needs to find the eight people whom fate has decreed will guide him on his journey to love and contentment. His Companion, the person whose actions will shape his, is a widowed baroness with intensely anti-Gustav sentiments and a knowledge of the language of fans that makes her ruthlessness even more terrifying, in that no one takes her for anything more than a pampered woman. It is The Uzanne whom this story ultimately revolves around, and her machinations to end the reign of Gustav and restore the proper order to things. Emil himself plays only a tiny part; it is the constellation of characters moving around him, to either encourage or thwart (or both, or neither) the coming assassination. Alas for the reader, that singularly interesting premise falls flat in the telling.

There is a common rule, perhaps the golden rule, of fiction writers: Show, don't Tell. Never, ever, ever Tell if what you need to convey can be done so by Showing. Do not tell the reader "Let me tell you about X. X was born in France and grew up in a large family. When she was 18, she married the Count of S and came to live in G. She learned about the art of Z and sought out the best learning to eventually become a master of her field." Were you as bored reading that as I was typing it? This sort of writing usually doesn't make it passed the editorial stages or, if the author is absolutely unable to make a scene Showing the reader, can be made into dialogue. "I discovered the art of poisoning as a girl, and it intrigued me. Suddenly I had the power of God in my hands, to be used as I wished. Power, x. Can you imagine it? The sweet taste of secret knowledge, gleaned from years of researching ancient tomes." See, now that's fun. That's something the reader can sink their teeth into, because it adds another important aspect of a story: voice, which we'll come to in a minute.

Telling is especially bad if the author stops to tell us in minute detail what the character is wearing and how the room is set. No one cares. A brief, subtle mention of it will do.

From time to time, Engelmann falls into the trap of Telling. Not often, but enough that the discerning reader picks up on it. Her book is fast-paced, but it suffers from the narrator, Emil, pausing to tell us things that he could rather show us. This, though, is more a problem of Voice and its twin sister, Perspective, than anything else.

There are three different main perspectives in The Stockholm Octavo, and at least two minor ones. We have Emil, The Uzanne, and Johanna, the protégée and love interest. This is all very well and good, but the book itself is written in the First Person: the "I" perspective. Thus, we have Emil (who really doesn't do much besides vacillate between characters, wailing to himself) narrating the intimate thoughts and actions of events that he had no opportunity to ever see. The author uses a clever trick to get away with this: she puts a cast of characters who "witnessed" the event at the top of every chapter and passes it back as History. It works fine, but perhaps it would have been better to opt for the Third Person Omniscient, which allows the reader to get into each character's head without the narrator resorting to hearsay.

So you have an excellent premise with an unfortunate narrator and lots of awkward scenes that would have benefited from a simple change of voice.

This is not to say that The Stockholm Octavo is poorly written. Quite the opposite, in fact: it is a well-paced, well-plotted and well-told tale, with characters to love and hate. Unfortunately, there ARE technical details that keep the story from achieving that polish that comes to a truly excellent story. It reads a little like tonic water that has lost some of it's sparkle: still good, but ultimately leaving you dissatisfied.

The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann.
Three out of five stars.

Questions and Answers with Massimo Giordano

Occasionally in life, something so random and cool happens that it completely throws you for a loop. In my case, this happened two weeks ago (right on the eve of the worst Death Cold I've had in ages), when Massimo Giordano himself sent me a message on Twitter to ask if I would please write a blog for him, about his new album. I believe the correct response in this case is "Um, YEAH". Alas, the fact that I teach 120 students under the age of 6 worked against me, as I came down with the Cold From Hell almost immediately after this, and was out of commission for a week and a half. But at long last, and thank you for your patience, Signor Giordano, is my blog post. :-)

Massimo Giordano has finally come out with an album for those of us who love tenor arias (and let's face it, most of us do). Amore e Tormento, produced by BMG, will feature a selection of Italian arias by Puccini, Verdi and Giordano, including those from "Don Carlo", "Manon Lescaut" and "Andrea Chenier".

Giordano himself comes from a working class Italian family, and has managed to make a pretty phenomenal international career, singing in all the world's major houses (including my personal favorite, the Vienna Staatsoper). He's sung with La Trebs, Natalie Dessay, and scores of others.

But you thought this was going to be a press release, didn't you? Nope. I've always been rather forward, and having a fever of 102F didn't really help. I asked for an email interview. I got it. And remember those Silly Opera Interview questions I posted months ago? Yeah, I asked some of those. And the ever fabulous Signor Giordano replied, no problem!

If you could sing any role, regardless of voice type or fach, what would it be?

Actually, I really like the bass voice. I find it very noble and I would love to sing Philippe the II in Don Carlo even though if I have to admit that each voice type has interesting arias that I would love to sing.

What's the funniest mistake you've ever made onstage?/What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you in a performance?

I have to say that nothing that funny ever happened to me on the stage until today. However, I remember a time I had a concert and 3 times I had to enter the stage and I completely tripped ALL 3 TIMES while going up the stairs to the stage!!!! … and then the Presenter of the concert immitated me by doing the same!!! :-)

Instead of the scariest, well I remember when I sang La Jongleur de Notre-Dame in Rome and at the end in order to show people that Jean was going to become an angel, I had to climb all the way up to the rooftop of the theater and I can assure you with or without security that was really scary!!!!

If you could turn any book or movie into an opera, what would it be and why?

Hummm ok this is what I call a nice question ;-)
I think that would be really interesting to make an opera about the political situation in Italy of the last 50 years because more then an opera would be a tragedy!

But seriously I love Boardwalk Empire this would be a great opera for the content of the story and the main character Mr. Thompson but especially because it is inspired by a real life story.

What's the last performance you cried over?
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Certainly it was Bohème in Paris with Inva Mula in the last act I finished always crying for real and it was a great emotion.

What made you choose to go with BMG for your debut album?

BMG gives me all the artistic freedom possible and the new Master Right model that Mr. Hartwig Masuch has invented is really effective. I also think that this will be the future for us as artists!

Which upcoming performances are you desperately excited about?

The exit of my album Amore e Tormento, because it will be a huge success :-)
But also the debut as Andrea Chenier in Wien this will be a great challenge and I am really looking forward to it!

Thank you, Massimo! Look forward to Amore e Tormento, coming soon to a record store near you!

When I get really, really good news

I will be attending the Deutsche Oper 100th Anniversary Gala this Saturday, thanks to the ever-fabulous Heidi Melton and her generosity to this opera fan.

The program includes a heady cocktail of Wagner, Rossini, Verdi, and (most importantly for your truly) the entire second act of Beethoven's Fidelio. I may just end up crying like a little girl.

Great composers reimagined

Continuing in the art vein I've been in lately, let's see how people are re-imagining the Great Composers (please note, the names are links to the artist's sites):

Beethoven:

Mozart:

Wagner:

Verdi:

I promise to make a real, substantial post soon (I've got one brewing on Don Carlo), but for now, enjoy!