One of my sisters that is.
Tristan is a choral conductor, twice married and determined not to be caught again. Lucy is a young music teacher in his choir and she is besotted with him. Steve, a bass in the choir, adores Lucy while Claire, a soprano, has designs on Tristan.
Various romantic entanglements take place as the choir prepares for a performance of William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast”.
Could this be the beginning of a new sub-genre? The classical music romance?
There is, I have to admit, a little thing that sister dearest may or may not be aware of in her choice of names for the main characters. She’s brighter than I am so she probably is.
You see one of her best friends at school was called Claire and she had a thing with a musician called Tristan. He wasn’t a choral conductor, true, rather a classical percussionist and sometime member of a very successful *not choral* rock band. Hope that doesn’t give too much away….
Lucy is our niece and no idea who Steve is. Perhaps we’d better not pry given that the brother in law is called Norman….strangely, the man that Nigel Farage knows as “Nipper” given that he was one of his teachers.
Perhaps that can be the next sub sub genre? The politics, education classical music and romance novel?
Anyway, I think we should call on Ms. Coppola to give us a proper review?
14 responses so far ↓
1 Matthew L // Feb 20, 2012 at 4:30 pm
You’ll injure someone dropping all those names if you’re not careful.
2 bloke in spain // Feb 20, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Does a fat lady sing in the final chapter?
3 diogenes // Feb 20, 2012 at 7:42 pm
well i do know that a certain Tristan brought in a selection of brake-drums for banging in a particular piece of “classical” music (how can you call it classical if it was written in the 1950s?)
4 Frances Coppola // Feb 20, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Not an entirely new genre. Joanna Trollope’s The Choir is set in the classical music world, though admittedly a rather specialised area (cathedral choirs). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choir-Joanna-Trollope/dp/0552994944
Shall read Ms Worstall’s op ed with interest and report back!
5 Philip Walker // Feb 20, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Well, there’s always Tristan as in Tristan and Isolde. Offhand, I can’t think of any classical opera figures called Steve.
6 Tom // Feb 20, 2012 at 10:41 pm
May you fry for these revelations.
But the sky’s the limit for your sister.
7 BenSix // Feb 20, 2012 at 10:59 pm
Could this be the beginning of a new sub-genre? The classical music romance?
Hmm…
Paul approached Susan as she sat among the orchestra.
“I hear you’re a keen player of the, er – oboe…” He murmured…
8 Andy // Feb 20, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Susan blew Tristan’s horn as he fingered her organ
9 JamesV // Feb 20, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Belshazzar’s Feast? Has to be Carmina Burana if you want to experience pure raw sexual tension as high art. Well, I’m overegging the “high art” a bit there.
Sang it with a uni choir more years ago than I care to admit.
10 Frances Coppola // Feb 20, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Re operatic Steve. There is a tenor called Giuseppe Di Stefano – loosely translated means Joe of Steve.
11 Chris // Feb 21, 2012 at 10:31 am
In Thomas Ades’s opera, ‘The Tempest’ (based on an idea by William Shakespeare, as the movie credits used to say), one of the roles is ‘Stefano, a drunken butler.’ He was played in the world premiere by Stephen Richardson. Is that enough operatic Steves for you?
12 Philip Walker // Feb 21, 2012 at 11:29 am
Fair point, I wasn’t clear. I meant characters from operas, not singers. And not Stefanos, either: they have to be genuine, bona fide Steves.
13 Ian Bennett // Feb 21, 2012 at 3:16 pm
That, Tom, is what I was thinking.
14 Robert Dammers // Feb 22, 2012 at 12:38 am
77p. I enjoyed “The Choir”. You made a sale. Enjoy your “good brother” points.
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