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The Venice Adriana, by Ethan Mordden
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Greek-American opera singer Adriana Grafanas is the most famous opera singer of her time and her scandals, temperament, and cancellations were the stuff of international headlines. Now, in her early 60s, her voice is in shreds and she is near retirement. Sent to Venice to "pull together" her autobiography, American Mark Trigger is drawn into the compelling world of Adriana and of Venice itself. Trying to uncover the truth about Adriana's life, Mark instead discovers his own passions--men and Adriana's music. Bold, sensual, and evocative of a forgotten time and place, The Venice Adriana is Ethan Mordden at his finest.
- Sales Rank: #1144412 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-04-07
- Released on: 2015-04-07
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
Any similarities between the heroine of Ethan Mordden's The Venice Adriana, Adriana Grafanas (a Greek American soprano famed equally for her thrillingly dramatic performances on stage and her fits of temper off stage), and the real-life diva Maria Callas (also a Greek American soprano famed equally for her thrillingly dramatic performances on stage and her fits of temper off stage) are obviously intentional. Mordden, author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction on operatic and other theatrical themes, has recreated Callas after her glory years and added a fictional version of himself to the mix. Mark Trigger is a young gay American sent by his employer, a publisher, to Venice in 1961 to help the legendary soprano Adriana Grafanas work on her long-promised, long-overdue autobiography. Grafanas, who has blown out her voice with high living and bad decisions, is a maddening combination of the lovable and the loathsome. Mark, while adoring her as a performer and often as a person, finds her frequently expressed homophobia difficult to take, particularly because many of the people who made her art and success possible, from directors to fans, were gay. Mordden grants Grafanas a far better (and earlier) end than life handed Callas, and although Mark fails to get the book written, he achieves several other ends that are important to him personally: he learns more about his sexuality and receives a valuable legacy from Adriana.
The Venice Adriana explores both the realm of the diva and the peculiar world of the pirate tape--illegally made recordings of live performances--and its collectors with well-informed wit. Adriana Grafanas is very much Callas, right down to specific anecdotes, but without the humiliation of the Onassis years or the sad end, alone, in Paris in 1977. Note: Mordden deliberately aims his story at a rather narrow readership, and the book contains graphic scenes of sexual relations that some may find offensive.
From Library Journal
Mordden's seventh work of fiction comes on the heels of his recent Some Men Are Lookers (LJ 5/15/97). Set in the early 1960s, the novel concerns narrator Mark Trigger's tenacious search for a recording of Adriana Grafanas singing the title role in Adriana Lecouvreur. Trigger is living with her in Venice and writing her biography, and he senses a clue to Adriana's identity in her performance. And therein lies the subject of this fiction?identity, whether self-identity, the image of ourselves that we deliberately fashion and encourage others to believe, or the aura surrounding a public figure, in this case a diva. The notion is supported by a parallel plot on the seeds of gay identity and the public perception of gay men and women. There are good reasons to compare the title character with gay icon and opera legend Maria Callas, beginning with her Greek origins and ending with Adriana's drug-laden last days. Mordden is in top form here, displaying the same high level of artistry as in his other novels. This book must be read slowly to appreciate the subtleties of character and theme. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Roger W. Durbin, Univ. of Akron, Ohio
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Opera buffs will perk up at Mordden's novel set in 1961 in Venice, where dwells Agriana Grafanas, a scandalous, tempestuous, Callas-like soprano said to have defined opera in the 1950s. American opera-lover and Grafanas fan Mark Trigger is ghost-writing the singer's autobiography, becoming part of a household that includes the sexy Italian actor Adriana adores; the Gossip, who hears all and tells all; and Deodata, devoted servant. As Mark assembles a scrapbook encompassing Adriana's career and conducts interviews for background, her voice continues deteriorating, to the point that, finally, fans heave turnips (!) at her on stage. Echoing Christopher Isherwood's classic Berlin Stories, Mordden has Mark teaching English to the handsome, hunky boyfriend of a neighboring professor, while a film director tries to interest the diva (who does no research in preparation for any role) in a movie appearance. As Mark assembles, interviews, teaches, and writes, he is also trying to track down a rare, early Grafanas recording. The joys, sorrows, vanities, and travails of the opera world abound. Whitney Scott
Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Compulsively funny and insightful
By A Customer
In his imagined memoirs of the ghost-writer of a fading opera diva inspired by the legends of Maria Callas, Ethan Mordden has gone a step beyond his prior gay buddies novels. While some of the delightful breezy humor from the former books is present, this book is ready to take on more serious issues, such as homophobia in the performing arts. I found it compulsively funny and insightful, and would recommend it highly, especially to the legion of Callas admirers! And tell us, Ethan, is there really a Venice Adriana tape, or must we remain consoled by the two arias from Cilea's opera that Callas recorded in 1954 in an aria collection conducted by Serafin?
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Brava Adriana
By Owen Keehnen
THE VENICE ADRIANA, is a real literary page-turner. Set in 1962 Venice the book focuses on a young gay writer (Mark Trigger) sent to ghost write the autobiography of fiery opera diva Adriana Grafanas (a character closely modeled upon Maria Callas). Over the course of a year the book traces Mark's awakening sexual identity as well as his tumultuous relationship with Adriana. Over time he discovers the woman behind the legend, a woman obsessed with acceptance while facing the erosion of her talent, a woman whose life has become her greatest performance and whose truth is ultimately an operatic tragedy of mythical proportions.
As an ardent fan Mark is promptly swept up in Adriana's life and dramas, a world populated by a cast of profoundly fabulous and colorful characters - a sexy leading man, a jet setting princess, a gay Italian film director, gossips, critics, "omosensualis" galore, and many more. Even Venice itself is brought vividly to life, given characterization through precise description and a brilliant use of language that made me want to drop everything and learn Italian.
In addition to being a sexy lot of fun the book also explores the tangled skein of issues involving the artist -- the state of celebrity, self-invention and transformation, gay identity, determination verses destiny, redemption and acceptance, the elements of genius, the enduring nature of art by all too human creators, and much more. Operatic to say the least! This is a fascinating stew to consider with no easy answers, which seems to be the ultimate truth of great art and the ultimate deception of all who attempt to define it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Il Sonnambulo
By WR
There is an awfully good reason, it turns out, why this is among Mordden's least known books: It is dull. Just as dull as you'd expect it to be to listen to a gaggle of egocentric neurotics talk about (and talk about and talk about) themselves. In fact, what fails utterly about the novel is that so much of it is one long, uneventful conversation after another--and by uneventful, I mean simply that all that talk neither moves the plot forward nor aids in character development, and the participants are not (by a very long shot) interesting enough to keep you turning pages just for the transcendental joy of reading their bons mots. Mordden's command of Italian, meanwhile, isn't nearly as good as he thinks it is, and his portrait of Vieri, a sort of grown-up Tadzio, one supposes (and the protagonist's love interest, though I would defy anyone to explain why - Vieri is cute, but he's an idiot; but then again, so is Mark Trigger, the "hero" of the piece), is an insult to Italians. (Yes, folks, the men ARE all bisexual. How's that for meaningful cross-cultural insight?) The nucleus of the novel, the Greek opera diva, Adriana Grafanas, is broad. In all senses of the word. If Grafanas is meant to be a mock-Callas, her psychodramas are tired and her tantrums are not delicious enough to be called temperamental. No, all Grafanas is, is an over-privileged brat. Callas was a piece of work, but at least she was interesting. There's tons of opera talk in the book (flawless if you're into it, deadly if you're not), but Mordden always writes about opera as if he's aiming several feet above your head because, let's face it, you're not *special* enough to know what he's talking about--a larf, actually, when one considers the Incredibly Shrinking Audience for opera and the fact that there's essentially been no new repertoire for nearly a century. How rarefied does the air have to get before we all drop dead for lack of oxygen? I'm not sure where _Venice Adriana_ falls in the line of Mordden's so to say oeuvre, but it feels very early and very amateurish. He's a great writer; go find something else of his to read and let this one sink into a nice, dignified oblivion.
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