Black Opera

Fascinating, despite its flaws.

A novel about 19th century Italian opera, court intrigues, prima donna behavior, atheism and religion was probably never an easy sell yet I think Mary Gentle pulled it off.

Perhaps I should start by saying that I love opera so this novel might be more suited to me than to people with no interest in this art form or in classical music. But if you like to read something new and different in fantasy, I hope you'll consider it.

It is certainly a high concept: an atheist librettist needs to write an opera in order to create a miracle. A lot of the book focuses on the actual writing of the opera: the main character cooperating with the composer, trying to find performers and dealing with their foibles, arranging sets and costumes while trying to hide their work from the bad guy(s) of the story.

At times, this makes for too high a concept, with certain plot twists stretching belief a bit too far in my opinion. The writing phase of the opera also lasts very long - though the payoff (a very long and wonderful finale) is excellent and worth persevering for. Sometimes, new elements of the story were introduced that felt suddenly at the time which made me think at first that the author got stuck somewhere and needed something weird to continue the story - but those elements later proved to be important parts of the story.

Some of the characters are a bit over the top but a cooperation between two people (to avoid spoilers I am not naming them) more than made up for that.

So, perhaps not perfect but it's been ages since I read something original in this genre and I vastly prefer something new and different (with a few minor flaws perhaps) over perfectly written run of the mill stuff. I think it's a great novel and I am definitely going to read more of Gentle's work who seems a vastly underrated author to me.

Fascinating, despite its flaws.

A novel about 19th century Italian opera, court intrigues, prima donna behavior, atheism and religion was probably never an easy sell yet I think Mary Gentle pulled it off.

Perhaps I should start by saying that I love opera so this novel might be more suited to me than to people with no interest in this art form or in classical music. But if you like to read something new and different in fantasy, I hope you'll consider it.

It is certainly a high concept: an atheist librettist needs to write an opera in order to create a miracle. A lot of the book focuses on the actual writing of the opera: the main character cooperating with the composer, trying to find performers and dealing with their foibles, arranging sets and costumes while trying to hide their work from the bad guy(s) of the story.

At times, this makes for too high a concept, with certain plot twists stretching belief a bit too far in my opinion. The writing phase of the opera also lasts very long - though the payoff (a very long and wonderful finale) is excellent and worth persevering for. Sometimes, new elements of the story were introduced that felt suddenly at the time which made me think at first that the author got stuck somewhere and needed something weird to continue the story - but those elements later proved to be important parts of the story.

Some of the characters are a bit over the top but a cooperation between two people (to avoid spoilers I am not naming them) more than made up for that.

So, perhaps not perfect but it's been ages since I read something original in this genre and I vastly prefer something new and different (with a few minor flaws perhaps) over perfectly written run of the mill stuff. I think it's a great novel and I am definitely going to read more of Gentle's work who seems a vastly underrated author to me.

Initially, I was intrigued by the concept. An alternate history with magical operas? Awesome. Unfortunately, some structural problems kept me from enjoying this book as much as I would have liked.
The book opens slowly, with lots of tell don’t show. I did not find the religion vs science debate(s) compelling. And as the book continues, the discussion becomes more polemicized & repetitious. I was reminded of Heinlein, and his characters being obvious mouthpieces for the author, giving long speeches that don’t convert, but rather are more in the vein of “preaching to the choir”.
As the book progressed, there seemed to be a problem with its pacing. The ultimate denouement seems to be artificially delayed again & again. By the time the story ended, I was more than ready for its conclusion.