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OVERVIEW
Chicagoans have a rare opportunity this fall and winter to read
and discuss
Ann Patchett
’s novel
Bel Canto
(inspired by the
Peruvian hostage crisis of 1996–97)—and to experience the world
premiere of the opera Bel Canto, by rising–star composer
Jimmy
López
and librettist
Nilo Cruz
, a Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright.
The internationally acclaimed soprano
Renée Fleming
curated
the new opera.
Bel canto
means beautiful singing in Italian; a beautiful singer is
key to Patchett’s story and of course to the opera. The novelist
listened to Fleming’s recordings (and others) as she wrote, but
the two met and became close friends only after
Bel Canto
was published in 2001. A decade later, as Lyric Opera’s creative
consultant, Fleming searched for a suitable composer to
transform the story, which led her to López—and the discovery
that he was a teenager in Lima when the actual crisis took place.
Patchett set her novel in a fictional South American capital;
López returned the story to Lima and introduced some details
from the original events, while Cruz transformed the expansive
narrative into tautly poetic libretto. Central to both the novel
and the opera are themes of confinement, isolation, created
community, and the power of music to communicate and heal.
The materials that follow will guide readers through both the
novel and the opera, and inspire conversations about their
similarities and differences.