Customer Reviews

Black Opera

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(2)
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First and foremost this is a magnificent story if not quite a perfect novel Trends in fantasy fiction come and go ( I'm sure teeny-bopper vampires are well past their sell-by date ) but Mary Gentle for 30+ years has constantly produced a sucession of highly original SF and fantasy works An alternate 19th century history mainland Sicily (!!) is the setting of the tale and the basic premise is that the passion and power created by opera can produce large scale miracles Our hero Conrad Scalese is an atheist librettist , not the ideal person urgently required to produce such an opera at very short notice The major part of the book deals with every aspect of this and shows the depth of the author's research but although quite fascinating develops the plot at a very leisurely pace with little action But we do have a ghost ,an emerging romantic triangle and a host of characters to keep things going When the action does take off there is also all the passion and power anyone would want and 200 pages of volcanic excitement and some challenging thoughts on the existence of God !! M/s Gentle is kind to her characters ; the mens'roles especially are sympathetically written,though I found Conrad' transvestite young sister ,a throwback to an earlier novel , had little to do The ending is skilfully contrived I'm sure that as with almost every Gentle novel I will read this again and hope that the wait for the next one is considerably shorter

One of the best book of 2012,once in a while a book comes along and grab you and does not let go until the last page black opera is one of those book ,it is an invitation to subversion .

Mary Gentle is nearly as good here as she was with Ashe. The whole premise of the novel - that two opera companies are competing by writing and performing opera, one side to raise a deity from the depths of Vesuvius and the other to stop it by doing the same and all of this set in the early 19th century - well enough said. Gentle takes into Naples in the early 19th century, Napoleon is still on well it is supposed to be Elba. The hero has just triumphed with an opera libretto is suffering from a horrible migraine and is arrested by the inquisition for the horrible crime of being an Enlightenment Man, a rationalist and an athiest and as a result obviously the cause of a lightning strike that burned to the ground the very opera house where his most recent opera triumphed..... Conrad is a very likeable protagonist, and a man of heroic self control in trying times. How many novels put a librettist at the centre of the action. And action there is. Conrad is rescued by the king of the two sicilies and set to write and produce a completely new opera within 6 weeks because this is needed to quench the effects of a black opera being produced by a group of powerful conspirators. Conrad is always playing catch up.

As with any of Gentle's better novels, Ashe, Ilario, her characters are engagingly flawed. Mostly I have to say the central characters are if anything a shade too understanding of each other in their hearts of hearts. I won't say more, about them as you need to read the book to find out who they are and how they all knit together. Overseeing the whole 'opera' is Ferdinand, King of the two Sicilies, who is doing his best to save his kingdom from natural and supernatural catastrophe. He is remarkably phlegmatic in the face of adversity, and thoroughly likeable to boot. Rather too good for a politician.

The action is fast and furious, there is plenty of fun, a lot of it utterly preposterous, but the read gallops along, with loads of interesting little snippets of detail, like how Napoleon survived the battle of Borodino, I loved that bit. On the way, and very much at the centre of the action is the working collaboration between a composer and his librettist as they battle to overcome all the practical and creative problems - including a crucial bit of writer's block - producing an opera in 6 weeks flat induces. And all the time they cordially loathe each other. They have good cause, yet their relationship moves through a dance of damage and reconciliation of a sort and then more damage to a kind of denoument of sorts.

There is a fittingly catastrophic final event, and Gentle is quite even-handed in the way she resolves things - both sides are left with nearly insoluble problems. She has here rediscovered her touch I think. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Mary Gentle, so the webbernet says, is a really big deal - with Ash praised as one of the Greatest Of All Time novels. So why isn't Gentle's first novel in six years getting more attention? There's a weird sense that this book just slipped through the cracks, which is unfair, as it is one of the year's best.

Black Opera is stunning - a gorgeous alternate history featuring two opera companies bidding for control of the world. It is slow and lavishly-described, punctuated by episodes of rapid-fire movement and battling philosophical arguments. The plot twists are melodramatic and surprisingly familiar. All like, well, an actual opera (except with all the boring bits removed). That structure is wonderful, and the result is a gutsy fusion of genres and styles, history and fantasy. The closest comparison would be Tim Powers at his most rhythmic; a combination of history and fantasy, all presented in a novel (that is, operatic) way.

An amazing book that, despite its size, reads like a, well... song.

I loved Gentle's Ash. Thought it was great, and ever since I've looked out for her work and read it, but was disappointed with this one. The idea was good. And I enjoyed the narrator, but it just felt overlong.
And maybe because I don't know enough about opera, but the music never really came to life for me.

I loved Mary Gentle when she produced science fiction books, I even liked Ash, she writes solidly and makes places and times come alive. I dislike this offering, and feel cheated