Paolo Baroni, Musico
(2012)(The first book in the Paolo Baroni, Musico series)
A novel by Margaret Miles
In the year 1724, at the fidgety age of 35, Paolo Baroni begins a leaping memoir describing a life enlivened by fine music and some of its greatest composers, singers, and players, most of them intact in historical record (although the author himself seems to have fallen through the cracks). Through Paolo's young eyes we observe great cities, deep friendships and love affairs, wars and political battles, dangers and delights, while he becomes acquainted with some of the most powerful men and women of the early eighteenth century.
Initially, from his crumbling country home above a tiny Italian village, the musico asks how he managed to rise from innocent poverty to stardom, using only his voice and talents. For answers he looks back, examining the twisting threads of his fate. These join together into a pair of ill-fated visits to the London courts of Queen Anne and George I, which involve much confusion - the subject of Volume II.
First, however, the young evirato shows us his peasant upbringing near Chioggia, then a new start in Venice. While we watch, he comes to enjoy success in Venice, Rome and Naples, during years when his heart is sought and captured by ladies who throw him into situations both comic and tragic, as those around him smile. If Paolo shares his life with many performers and musicians, his strongest bonds are formed with a pair of contrary composers: Venice's violin prodigy Antonio Vivaldi, known as the Red Priest, and a youthful visitor from Saxony called Handel, that strange charmer whose genius is embraced equally by commoners, courtiers, and cardinals.
Through his reminiscences, we see how Paolo is taught to manage his unusual voice, and his career, by the legendary il Nicolini, then given knowledge which allows him to sing in the doge's church of San Marco, as well as on the stages of la Serenissima. However, his youthful pursuits also plunge him into what promises to become a life worse than death. Finally, shaken, he doubts the very reason he chose to live as a castrato, which was to sing for the pleasure of Heaven.
Further, through Carnival and quieter times, we may peer at Paolo's thoughts when he meets his first love, the Swedish virgin Stella, at the Ospedale della Pieta, the more worldly sopranano Margherita Durastanti at the Teatro di Sant' Angelo, and the charming but penniless Anastasia Robinson, eager for fame, in the home of the powerful Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. Many others we may know come and go - and how could such an eventful life avoid a vendetta? Yet in the end it is Paolo's common sense and acceptance, as well as his uncommon goodness, which cause us to laugh and perhaps sigh, waiting to see how his engaging story will end.
Genre: Historical
Initially, from his crumbling country home above a tiny Italian village, the musico asks how he managed to rise from innocent poverty to stardom, using only his voice and talents. For answers he looks back, examining the twisting threads of his fate. These join together into a pair of ill-fated visits to the London courts of Queen Anne and George I, which involve much confusion - the subject of Volume II.
First, however, the young evirato shows us his peasant upbringing near Chioggia, then a new start in Venice. While we watch, he comes to enjoy success in Venice, Rome and Naples, during years when his heart is sought and captured by ladies who throw him into situations both comic and tragic, as those around him smile. If Paolo shares his life with many performers and musicians, his strongest bonds are formed with a pair of contrary composers: Venice's violin prodigy Antonio Vivaldi, known as the Red Priest, and a youthful visitor from Saxony called Handel, that strange charmer whose genius is embraced equally by commoners, courtiers, and cardinals.
Through his reminiscences, we see how Paolo is taught to manage his unusual voice, and his career, by the legendary il Nicolini, then given knowledge which allows him to sing in the doge's church of San Marco, as well as on the stages of la Serenissima. However, his youthful pursuits also plunge him into what promises to become a life worse than death. Finally, shaken, he doubts the very reason he chose to live as a castrato, which was to sing for the pleasure of Heaven.
Further, through Carnival and quieter times, we may peer at Paolo's thoughts when he meets his first love, the Swedish virgin Stella, at the Ospedale della Pieta, the more worldly sopranano Margherita Durastanti at the Teatro di Sant' Angelo, and the charming but penniless Anastasia Robinson, eager for fame, in the home of the powerful Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. Many others we may know come and go - and how could such an eventful life avoid a vendetta? Yet in the end it is Paolo's common sense and acceptance, as well as his uncommon goodness, which cause us to laugh and perhaps sigh, waiting to see how his engaging story will end.
Genre: Historical
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