Death at La Fenice

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The series’ popularity has also led to the publication of a cookbook, a tour book of Venice based upon Brunetti’s own walks, and a walking tour of Venice authorized by Donna Leon. Overall Reaction: The lights dimmed, the hall grew dark, and the tension created by an ongoing performance mounted as the audience waited for the conductor to reappear on the podium. Slowly the hum of voices faded, the members of the orchestra stopped fidgeting in their seats, and the universal silence announced everyone’s readiness for the third and final act. In Italy, there is still a strong impulse to help the person in difficulty," she says. "The farther south you go, the stronger is the impulse. So if this had happened in Naples, or Palermo, there would have been screams at the driver: 'What did you do?' There would have been a competition to help me to my feet. Somebody would have asked me if I needed a glass of water. Nineteen people would have offered me their seats to lie down on." Turning, the artistic director fumbled at the curtain, unable for a moment to find the opening through which he had come. Disembodied hands parted the curtain from behind, and he slipped through, finding himself in the bare garret where Violetta was soon to die. From out in front, he heard the tentative. applause that greeted the substitute conductor as he took his place on the podium.

Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, is the first of the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy. The novel won the Japanese Suntory prize, [1] and its sequel is Death in a Strange Country (1993). Leon receiving a German literature prize, the Corine, in Munich in 2003; her crime novels have been turned into a German television series. Credit: Snapper Media From the first gallery, there came a burst of coughing; someone dropped a book, perhaps a purse; but the door to the corridor behind the orchestra pit remained dosed. This has not stopped the books’ popularity in other countries; a German TV series featuring Brunetti began in 2000, called simply Donna Leon , and has continued to release two episodes per year. I was unable to find a copy of this show to watch it, but was interested to see that Julia Jäger, playing Paola, was nominated for an Adolf Grimme Award for her acting in the series. Based upon the trailer I found for the show, it looks like the series has tried to stay true to the novels, and if you enjoy watching foreign language murder mystery shows, you might like Donna Leon . Murderers aren't the problem in Venice. Tourists are. Millions of them arrive each year, surging in eager waves into Piazza San Marco, swarming through the Doge's Palace, squeezing onto the water-buses, known as vaporetti, that ply the Grand Canal.In Death at La Fenice, the career of a world-famous conductor with a Nazi past ends abruptly – between acts two and three of La Traviata – when he drinks a cup of coffee laced with cyanide. Leon put the manuscript in a drawer and left it there for a year. Then a friend insisted she enter it in a competition, which she won. Since the prize was a two-book publishing contract, she felt obliged to produce a second Brunetti mystery. Before she knew it, she had embarked on a third, then a fourth, though she still wrote the books for her amusement as much as anything else. (For editing the first three, she paid her university colleague, Toni Sepeda, in prosecco.) Death at La Fenice is Donna Leon’s first novel in her Guido Brunetti series, set in the beautiful city of Venice. Guido Brunetti is a commissario (detective) for the Venetian police and investigates the the death of world-famous conductor Helmut Wellauer, who was poisoned in his dressing room during an opera. The novel is written in 3rd person limited, describing Brunetti’s thoughts to the reader throughout. Brunetti must investigate Wellauer’s death as he discovers the genius had more enemies than he initially suspected. Venice is the perfect setting for this modern cozy, as Leon emphasizes the smallness and interconnectivity of the Venetian community, limiting the list of suspects to the music world of Venice. Come on, Paola, you know I’m always wrong when I try to work by intuition, when I suspect too much or I suspect too soon.” (199) Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. What a ripping first mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself. Sparkling and irresistible.' Rita Mae Brown

We don't actually witness many killings in Leon's books. By the time Brunetti arrives, the yellow tape has gone up around the crime scene. "I'm as one with Aristotle on this," Leon has said. "Do the bloody deed off-stage and then have the messenger come in and describe it."Not that she minds much either way. She doesn't watch them – she has never owned a TV – and has no involvement in translating the novels to the screen. According to one of her friends, Toni Sepeda, Leon's attitude is cheerfully mercenary: "She goes, 'Here's the book, give me the money, thank you, goodbye.'"

Leon's novels sell well in Switzerland, but she can go about her business undisturbed there. "Everyone is invisible in Switzerland," she has said. In Venice, she is regularly bailed up by people in the grip of Brunettimania, many of them from German-speaking countries ("The centre of the cult is Austria," she says). Venetians themselves leave her alone because, at her insistence, the books aren't published in Italian. Donna Leon has given fans of subtle, clever and literate mysteries something to cheer about. . . . A wonderful read.' Tony Hillerman Read more Look Inside Details A world-famous German opera conductor has died at La Fenice, and Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti pursues what appears to be a murder investigation without leads.He glanced up into the horseshoe of the still darkened hall, tried to smile, failed, and abandoned the attempt. “Excuse, ladies and, gentlemen, the difficulty. The opera will now continue.” A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Music is a source of consolation to Leon. "I can't sing," she says. "And I can't read music. I just like it. Particularly baroque music. Particularly baroque vocal music." The operas of Handel are her idea of heaven. With the money earned from her books, she has supported two European opera orchestras, Il Complesso Barocco and Il Pomo d'Oro. Besides providing funds, she travels to performances, writes program notes and organises recordings. As far as she is concerned, this is her most important work. "I'm not particularly proud of the books. I'm much prouder of the music."