Agostino began as a choir, concert, opera soprano
The Jewels of Paradise acquaints essayist, historian, and novelist Donna Leon’s readers with the biography and compositions of seventeenth and eighteenth-century diplomat, ecclesiastic, and musician Agostino Steffani (July 25, 1654 – February 12, 1728) in Baroque Germany and Italy.
The mystery begins with Venetian native Caterina Pellegrini's assistant professorship and research fellowship at the University of Manchester in England. Cati concludes that she needs to resign from her four-year positions at the world-respected center on Baroque music studies and reinsert herself elsewhere, in continental Europe's job market. She decides to examine the unknown contents of two unopened trunks to ascertain the disposition of riches between two claimants, a tax evader and a usurious moneylender.
The duo emerge as the only known descendants of Agostino’s cousinly heirs, archpriest Antonio Scapinelli and Giacomo Antonio Stievani.
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Website: http://www.donnaleon.net/
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Comments
Mira, The combination of Baroque music expertise and 25+-year residency combine to make "The Jewels of Paradise" a fascinating reading experience. All of Donna Leon's books merit being read even though I guess when push comes to shove I'd have to own up to a super-particular fondness for "By Its Cover," "Gondola," "Handel's Bestiary," and "The Jewels of Paradise."
It's my hope that Donna Leon will turn "The Jewels of Paradise" into a series. In Russia, perhaps Caterina Pellegrini and The Romanian will find P.I. Tchaikovsky's lost "The Voivode."
You say she lives in Venice and has a passion for the place and for Baroque music. It sounds like a great book!