Murdering Tosca: An Opera "Shocker"

By Margo Miller

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1604749938
• ISBN13: 9781604749939
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Publishamerica Inc
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Amusing Mayhem On The Opera Circuit

The world of opera, in the right hands,lends itself wonderfully well as a fruitful vehicle for comedy, satire, and farce. Think, for example, of Ken Ludwig's play "Lend Me A Tenor", or Anna Russell, the English comic soprano, singing, as she calls it, "Canto Doliamente Pipo from the opera La Cantatrice Squelante." Margo Miller goes one step further in her "Murdering Tosca" - An Opera Shocker" - (Publish America, 2008, 232 pp.) in which she gives her readers a dark but amusing account of a down-at-the-heels opera baritone and self-styled impresario who aims, with the aid of his ambitious agent, to create an opera company to bring Tosca to the unwashed in upstate New York. The wicked narrative keeps us engaged until its end when -in an inspiration of originality - we are served an unhealthy dollop of opera noir (several real deaths, and only one of them without malice aforethought.) Given Ms. Miller's past working experience with the Boston Symphony and as a veteran staff writer with the Boston Globe covering opera, classical music and balllet, her characters and mise-en-scene are sharply observed. Her protagonist impresario - John Austin Othmar - has never allowed his failed singing career to diminish any part of his self-esteem, and intends to direct opera under a personal mission to "defend" the music against "brainless singers." Mr. Miller's full-bodied character descriptions are supplemented with deft touches of indirection; Othmar, for example, "cribbed" his last name from a third party because, Ms. Miller insinuates, it would look better on a marquee. His agent, "Gilly", is a lawyer who as a young man turned down an invitation to join his father's Boston firm, and thereafter occasionally and ruefully sings "This Nearly Was Mine" (misattributing the song to "Kismet" instead of "South Pacific" - in the same vein of confusion he calls his office cat "Archie" instead of "Mehitabel"). Gilly operates his New York agency business under the consequential name of "Gillespie & Company", although, in truth, the business consists of himself and a single typist. "Liz" is his tall, willowy, and winning wife who expresses herself with snappy New York edge, acquired, one surmises, from years of toiling in the city's art galleries. The author's description of "Evie Titus" is a spot-on portrait of a small town's leading committee woman and doyenne of the local arts with whom Othmar sets out to ingratiate himself, with a degree of success he later comes to regret. Her niece, Sarah Smythe, is a hapless local reporter who sees the coming of Tosca to town as a great career opportunity for herself, and, self-conscious about her lack of opera knowledge, promises to let Othmar read her pre-publication news copy, particularly the fulsome quotes about himself. Rounding out the principal players are "Victor Pompelli", a noted Italian conductor, who offers to conduct the opera provided he can supply the leading male voices and only if his diva wife - in the twili

A Subtle Opera Satire

From the sly title to the smashing finale, Margo Miller's "Murdering Tosca" is enormous fun. This "shocker" is a subtly composed satire, liberally laced with black humor and played out by a wonderfully drawn cast of characters. The story unfolds in Pallas, a small, down-at-the-heels upstate New York City, "a dump at both ends, like a banana going bad." The powers that run Pallas are hoping to put their town on the arts map with a production of Puccini's grand melodrama "Tosca" in the refurbished Palladium theater. Things don't turn out as they'd hoped. Actually, that's putting it mildly. Everything goes wrong. Miller, a keen observer of human foibles, is a writer of great wit, style and precision who tells a marvelously funny story. Miller knows classical music and she is, as well, a repository of opera trivia, much of it hilarious. Fans of "Tosca" should be amused, but you don't have to be an opera aficionado to enjoy this delightful novel.

A Dazzling Killer Aria

"Murdering Tosca" is a delightful book. It is funny, fast-paced and its brilliant insights embellish the narrative without ever slowing it down....Ms. Miller has created a large cast of characters, making each one laughable, yet lovable...ridiculous, yet real. I loved being in the company of these people: the Grand Dame who rules the social life of a small American city, her reporter niece who tries so hard and gets everything wrong and, particularly, the over-the-hill Italian opera musicians whom Miller plunks down in the middle of a New York winter. Even the villain has his charms and Miller develops his depravity so expertly that when the whiz-bang grand climax arrives, it seems inevitable. If you love and appreciate music, especially opera and ( in particular)" Tosca", there's the bonus of an author who really knows classical music. This book would make a great "opera buffa"....too bad Rossini isn't around to write it. Rupert Getzen