The Mapmaker’s Opera
In the tradition of Allende, this is a magical novel, written in the form of an opera, and set in Seville and Mexico in the late 1800s.Act I opens in Seville. Emilio has been forced by his overbearing mother into the priesthood. Monica is a governess in a wealthy household who falls pregnant by the head of the house. A chance meeting in Seville cathedral suggests a solution to both their predicaments – they decide to marry, though it is not a love match. Emilio raises Monica's son Diego as his own, and they form a close bond over their mutual love of language, books, maps and birds. When Emilio dies, Monica reveals that he was not Diego's father. She grows ever more embittered and eventually dies, leaving Diego to pursue his true calling – his love of birds.Act 2 follows Diego's life in Mexico – his apprenticeship to an American who is mapping the birds of Mexico; his love for Sofia, the beautiful, independent daughter of a Mexican farmer; and his obsession with saving the Passenger Pigeon from extinction. The cities of Seville and Mérida are so central to the narrative, and evoked so beautifully, that they are almost characters themselves.Taking in many of the stock characters that appear in the best operas – the philanderer, the wronged wife, the harassed servant, the star-crossed lovers – The Mapmaker's Opera is an original and magical novel which will appeal to lovers of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende.
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BÉA GONZALEZ
The
MAPMAKER’S OPERA
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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First published in Canada by HarperCollinsPublishers 2005
A paperback original 2006
Copyright © Béa Gonzalez 2005
Béa Gonzalez asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007207794
Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780007386505
Version: 2016-08-24
For Andrew, who taught me to look up at the sky, and our dear pingüinos, Will and Andre, who bring such joy to our lives.
| No soy d’esta tierra | I’m not from this land, |
| Ni en eya nasí: | Nor was I born here; |
| La fortuniya, roando, roando | Fate, rolling, rolling |
| M’ha traío hasta aquí. | Brought me this way. |
| Ar campito solo | To the fields |
| Me voy a yorá; | I wander to weep; |
| Como tengo yena e penas | Filled with such sorrow and grief |
| El arma | It is only solitude |
| Busco soléa. | I seek. |
| Las cosas del mundo | The things of this world, |
| Yo na la jentiendo. | I just don’t understand |
| La mitad de la gente llorando | Half of the people cry, |
| Y la otra riendo. | While the other half laugh. |
| Horas de alegría | The happy times |
| Son las que se van | How fleeting they are, |
| Que las penas se queden | While the sad times |
| Y duran | Last and last |
| Una eternidad. | An eternity at least. |
| Arbolito del campo | The little tree in the field |
| Riega el rocío | Is watered by dew |
| Como yo riego | Like I water the cobblestones |
| De tu calle | Of your street |
| Con llanto mío. | With the weight of my tears. |
| Cuando yo me muera | When I die |
| Mira que te encargo: | I ask you do this for me: |
| Que con la jebra de tu | Take a strand of your |
| Pelo negro | Brilliant black hair |
| Me amarres las manos. | And bind my hands with it. |
| Emilio, a seminarian | Tenor |
| Mónica, governess in the house of Don Ricardo Medina | Mezzo-soprano |
| Remedios, mother of Emilio | Contralto |
| Doña Fernanda, wife of Don Ricardo Medina | Contralto |
| Don Pedro, priest and confidant of Doña Fernanda | Baritone |
| Raimundo, master of the Medina house | Bass-baritone |
| Don Ricardo Medina, head of the Medina clan | Baritone |
| Alfonso, bookseller and Emilio’s uncle | Bass |
| Diego, son of Mónica and Don Ricardo | Tenor |
| El Señor Raleigh, English traveller, friend of Emilio and Diego | Bass |
| Edward Nelson, Diego’s mentor | Bass-baritone |
| Very Useful, Mr. Nelson’s servant | Baritone |
| Sofia Duarte, daughter of Roberto Duarte | Soprano |
| Don Roberto Duarte, Yucatecan hacendado, bookseller | Bass-baritone |
| Gabriela, wife of Roberto Duarte | Mezzo-soprano |
| Doña Laura, mother of Roberto Duarte | Contralto |
| Aunt Marta, Gabriela’s sister | Mezzo-soprano |
| Don Victor Blanco, henequen magnate | Bass |
| Carlos Blanco, son of Victor Blanco | Baritone |
| Rosita, childhood friend of Sofia | Soprano |
| Patricia, friend of Sofia | Soprano |
