Tagged: opera
Blood Diva by V. M. Gautier
(Cover picture courtesy of Mythical Books.)
The 19th century’s most infamous party-girl is undead and on the loose in the Big Apple.
When 23 year-old Parisian courtesan, Marie Duplessis succumbed to consumption in 1847, Charles Dickens showed up for the funeral and reported the city mourned as though Joan of Arc had fallen. Marie was not only a celebrity in in her own right, but her list of lovers included Franz Liszt – the first international music superstar, and Alexandre Dumas fils, son of the creator of The Three Musketeers. Dumas fils wrote the novel The Lady of the Camellias based on their time together. The book became a play, and the play became the opera La Traviata. Later came the film versions, and the legend never died.
But what if when offered the chance for eternal life and youth, Marie grabbed it, even when the price was the regular death of mortals at her lovely hand?
In 2014, Marie wonders if perhaps nearly two centuries of murder, mayhem, and debauchery is enough, especially when she falls hard for a rising star she believes may be the reincarnation of the only man she ever truly loved. But is it too late for her to change? Can a soul be redeemed like a diamond necklace in hock? And even if it can, have men evolved since the 1800′s? Or does a girl’s past still mark her?
Blood Diva is a sometimes humorous, often dark and erotic look at sex, celebrity, love, death, destiny, and the arts of both self-invention and seduction. It’s a story that asks a simple question – Can a one hundred ninety year-old demimondaine find happiness in 21st century Brooklyn without regular infusions of fresh blood?
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
As my regular readers are probably well aware of by now, I love opera. It makes up the bulk of music I’ve listened to in the past two years or so and since there’s nothing on television anymore it also makes up the bulk of movies/performances I watch. I guess you could say I’m an opera fanatic, so when I saw this book on NetGalley I decided I’d go for it. After all, while I’d never heard of the real Marie Duplessis, I sure loved Violetta in La Traviata. I figured it would be nice to see a different take on the woman behind the legend.
What was really clear from the beginning is the Gautier loves opera and she loves the book by Alexandre Dumas fils. She has this excited energy about both of them that you really just can’t fake. However, to me it seemed like her love of opera sometimes exceeded her knowledge of it. When referring to a famous aria from Verdi’s Rigoletto she called it “Dona e mobile”, which is not correct Italian. It should be “La Donna e mobile”. At another point a vampire tells her he calls blood l’elisir d’amore because of the Rossini opera; that’s not really possible because Donizetti wrote the opera in question. Some other errors like saying “vencere, vencere” is the last line of the aria “Nessun Dorma” can be attributed to the lack of knowledge of characters, but the two examples above should have been caught in the editing process.
For all of my nitpicking, I really did enjoy Blood Diva. Marie/Alphonsine is a great character and is very three dimensional. She struggled so much with her transition to being a vampire and now she struggles with being a vampire because she’s falling in love with a human. A human that doesn’t (and can’t) know about her past. Marie also really struggles about what she’s forced to do for work because sometimes the elder vampires (in order to gain funds for the communal fund to help other vampires) sometimes make her revert to her old profession. It’s actually kind of sad that she was gifted an immortal life on her deathbed and yet, for all that she’s seen and learned, she’s back where she started 200 years ago.
This is mostly a character novel, so it helped that both Marie and Dashiell were three dimensional. The one thing I really loved was that their relationship was intense and beautiful, but that it also had its rocky moments. Contrary to how they’re portrayed in many novels, relationships are rarely straightforward and couples in love do argue. Marie and Dashiell certainly argue, but you can always feel that they love each other. Considering their relationship takes up most of the book, I really appreciated that Gautier spent so much effort on it.
The plot was pretty good right up until the end. As I’ve said, this was character driven so of course it’s going to be slower than a plot-driven novel, but Blood Diva never really drags. The characters are far too interesting for that. My only problem is that the ending left me unsatisfied. It fits with the theme throughout the book of Marie’s fictional incarnations, so I don’t mind that the ending was not necessarily the most cheerful ever. I just felt unsatisfied, like “I read all that only for it to end like this?”. It didn’t feel like there was much closure, really.
Still, Gautier’s writing style was beautiful, her pacing was excellent as well as her characters and she had that kind of excitement that you just can’t fake. Despite the ending and the little mistakes I really, really enjoyed Blood Diva and I hope that Gautier, whether under this pseudonym or another, writes more novels in the future.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Serenade by Emily Kiebel
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Suddenly the voice she prized is now dangerously seductive…
Lorelei Clark’s only concern was her future as a classically trained soprano, that is, until the day her father was tragically killed. Shattered by his death, she hesitantly accepts an invitation from a mysterious aunt to visit her lavish oceanside home in Cape Cod. She quickly discovers that her aunt and the two women who live with her are harboring a frightening secret they are sirens, terrifying mythical creatures responsible for singing doomed sailors to their deaths. Even more astounding, Lorelei is one of them. In this new world where water comes alive at her touch and an ancient power pulses beneath the tide, the most important rule Lorelei must learn is that a siren never interferes with fate. When she breaks this rule by rescuing a handsome sailor who should have died at sea, the sirens vow she must finish the job or face grave consequences. Finding herself inexplicably attracted to him, she must fight to keep him safe from the others, even if it means risking her own life, and her heart, in the process.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I’ve actually read quite a few books about sirens now since they seemed to be trending in YA for a while, but the thing that attracted me to Serenade especially was that the main character was a classically trained soprano. I love opera and I decided to see if Emily Kiebel’s take on sirens was different from that of the other books in her niche. Thankfully, it was.
The world-building in Serenade is actually much better than in most siren books. In this version, sirens don’t lure people to their deaths, they just soothe them as they die because it’s the will of Fate. They don’t really control their power but at the same time they can’t escape it because the sea will always call to them. Of course this makes for some interesting moral dilemmas like “What if I don’t want to help people die for the rest of my life?” or “What if someone isn’t ready to die?”. It’s that last question that gets Lorelei in some serious trouble, but it presents an interesting answer to the question of whether or not sirens really have free will.
Not only was the world-building pretty good, I liked Lorelei as a main character. She absolutely loves singing and is willing to defy her own mother to pursue a career in opera. When her father dies in an accident right before her eyes, you really do feel for Lorelei even though you’ve pretty much just met her. It’s a rare author that can make you truly connect with a character so quickly, but Emily Kiebel managed to do it. My only problem character-wise was the secondary characters. None of them really stood out for me; they were more average in terms of being fleshed out and I didn’t really connect with any of them, even our handsome sailor that Lorelei rescues and falls in love with.
As for the plot, it takes a while for Lorelei to get her bearings as a siren so it’s not exactly fast-paced in the beginning and middle of the book. There is a lot of tension, though, as she wrestles with many moral dilemmas surrounding her siren calling. But the action really doesn’t get going until she saves someone who is supposed to die. Then pretty much everything goes to the dogs in her family and Lorelei is faced with killing a man who isn’t ready to die or risking exile and knowing he’ll be killed anyway. It’s really not a good situation and I like the little turn of events at the end. Still, I think Serenade could have been a little faster paced without sacrificing the character development.
This book doesn’t release until July 15th, but I definitely urge you to pre-order it. It’s one of the best books in the siren sub-genre of YA that I’ve read lately and I have to say that Emily Kiebel really knows her opera (although that’s just a bonus when paired with the world-building and main character).
I give this book 4/5 stars.
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Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
(Cover picture courtesy of Strange Chemistry Books.)
For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.
But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
If you’re a regular reader of my reviews here you’re probably wondering why I picked up a book like Stolen Songbird not so long after picking up Captivate by Vanessa Garden, a book with a very similar premise. Well, the truth is that I’m kind of a sucker for these types of stories and saw that Danielle L. Jensen’s book had a lot of potential to be good. If it was done right, that is. The question is: was it done right?
Of course! I got so much more than I bargained for when I took a chance on Stolen Songbird. First off, the main character Cécile is an opera singer, so I’m automatically predisposed to like her as I love opera. But what makes her stand out so much from other protagonists is that even though she’s the ‘Chosen One’ figure in Trollus, she doesn’t succeed in meeting their expectations. She’s imperfect
Unlike a lot of protagonists in her situation, she makes an honest attempt at an escape; she doesn’t fall for Tristan right away. She feels conflicted when she does start growing feelings for him and her choice at the end is shocking and more than a little satisfying. As for Tristan himself I love how he developed as he let his guard down around Cécile. We got to see things from his point of view and it was interesting seeing how they each perceived the other as well as the events and politics going on in Trollus at the time.
She may not be the saviour they’re waiting for. It might not even be a good thing if Trollus was freed from the witches’ curse! It’s all so wonderfully ambiguous; absolutely nothing is clear-cut in this book and that’s one of the main reasons I love it. Danielle L. Jensen doesn’t deal in the black and white, good and evil that is the hallmark of your typical YA fantasy novel. No, there’s good trolls, bad trolls and trolls in-between, just like how she portrays the humans in the novel.
One of the many amazing things about this book is the world-building, which is only enhanced by the beautiful writing style. We slowly learn the backstory of Trollus and how it came to be under a mountain and why the trolls can’t leave. Just when you think you know the whole story, you learn something new about the origins of the city and its inhabitants. There are two sides to the history of trolls and Cécile must decide which one is right or if the truth is somewhere in between the two extremes. The world of Trollus would be fascinating even with mediocre writing, but it is the vivid imagery Danielle L. Jensen uses that puts Stolen Songbird into the ‘great book’ category. Her descriptions of the tunnels, the sluags, the city itself, the palace gardens, the countryside, etc. all make Cécile’s world come alive. The little details are important and I always had a good picture of what the setting looked like in my head, unlike in a lot of other books that sacrifice description for pacing.
In short, Stolen Songbird is a must-read. It doesn’t come out until April 1, but you had better pre-order a copy right now if you find this book even remotely interesting. Just like me you’ll also want the rest of The Malediction Trilogy to come out this instant as well. I can’t wait for book two!
I give this book 5/5 stars.
4 Lessons Writers Can Learn from Opera
Opera has a reputation as a rather dreary art form, full of over-complicated/ridiculous plots and fat women screeching. Nothing could be further than the truth in a lot of cases. And rather than mocking opera without even trying it, many people would do well to learn lessons from it. Writers especially because it may come as a shock to some, but opera imparts some very important lessons to us. The following are just some of them.
Lesson: Good characters can have terrible flaws.
As taught by: Tosca, Ernani, Aida and La Boeheme.
In Tosca, the title character (who is a notable singer within the opera) is the epitome of a wonderful person: she’s sincere in her faith, tries to do good in the world and her love for Cavaradossi (a notable painter and her lover) knows no bounds. Except that Tosca becomes wildly jealous when she sees that Cavaradossi has portrayed another woman as the Madonna in his painting in the church in Act 1. She is haunted by the woman’s eyes and they argue back and forth before Cavaradossi finally changes the Madonna’s blue eyes to black eyes like Tosca’s.
Normally I’d say that extreme jealousy like Tosca’s would make me hate a character, but it works in her case. She’s a good person but has a fatal flaw: her jealousy. The same is true in real life, as I’m sure we’ve all noticed. Even the best people in our lives can have horrible character traits and that’s something authors really need to recognize. Yes, even the main character of the novel has to have something unlikeable about them. That’s how real life is so why should fiction be any different? Continue reading
Opera A to Z: A Beginner’s Guide to Opera by Liddy Lindsay
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
Look no further than this book for a succinct yet thorough primer on the world’s most famous operas! From Aida to Zauberflöte, this ABC of operas will inform music lovers of the storylines and characters in these beloved masterpieces. A book intended for young readers (ages 8-12), but sure to delight music lovers of all ages.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ARC ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
As someone who loves opera and who grew up in a household where opera was treasured, I never really had the disadvantage of having to learn about it later in life. If I had, I’m know Opera A to Z would have been the perfect place to start. My earliest memories of the holiday season in December are of listening to Christmas with Pavarotti as well as Handel’s Messiah, so as an opera lover for years I do feel qualified to comment on how Liddy Lindsay represents opera. (Even if I sort of ignored opera throughout my tween years and fell in love with it again at the age of 14.)
So how does she represent opera? Quite well, actually. She explains the basics, from the fact that it’s an art form that has developed over four distinct periods, what an opera entails and some of the technical terms like libretto, overture, aria, etc. These are all explained thoroughly in the introduction but Liddy Lindsay actually had faith in her tween audience and decided not to overdo the explanation part. Her writing style is simple but easy to read, so I doubt there’s much danger of misunderstanding in the beginning.
When she launches into her list of operas from A to Z, she really shows her knowledge of opera in an easy to read and understand way. For each opera, she gives a brief summary of the plot and explains certain famous elements (i.e. the habanera from Carmen). And for beginners, that’s really all you need. The illustrations she provides are awesome even on my Kindle, but I still highly recommend picking up the print copy to fully appreciate them. My only real criticism of the book besides from the occasionally slipshod proofreading is that in her plot summaries, Lindsay greatly oversimplifies things. She tells them in a simpler manner than they are told in the actual opera, which I can see why she did but I still didn’t like. It sort of misrepresents the opera, or its plot to be more accurate.
I could dispute some of her choices for letters, but I won’t as they’re a matter of personal preference more than anything. Overall, I was actually quite pleased at the selection of time periods and composers that Liddy Lindsay chose to include. She includes every opera from Aida to Vanessa and every composer from Verdi to Francesco Cavalli. It’s quite an impressive selection and even I learned some new things.
If you’re looking to get into opera or just want to know what the heck all the fuss is about, this is the book for you. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll give opera a chance and have that magical moment where you inexplicably fall in love with it in the midst of watching one. I know I did.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
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