The Mapmaker’s Opera

The Mapmaker’s Opera
Bea Gonzalez

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.

BÉA GONZALEZ

The

MAPMAKER’S OPERA

Copyright (#ulink_38922187-82d3-539b-a3d8-9f53dacc0659)

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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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007207794

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780007386505

Version: 2016-08-24

Dedication (#ulink_9adb3fbf-177e-5832-825d-52e8797cacf9)

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.

Seguiriya (#ulink_5973af7e-9752-5018-a9d7-e792237b8898)

Dramatis Personae (#ulink_9c8844fe-433f-5e52-9561-200c70487878)

Contents

Cover (#ue0c6b7e4-8fe6-5b64-aea3-5137f871c40e)

Title Page (#ub8e000bf-51a3-59c2-9c1e-9b5d4098e60d)

Copyright (#ulink_60e91fbc-9b52-5ec4-86d6-0ed84ce5ee6d)

Dedication (#ulink_cff285d4-f634-5143-a19a-4e37747fc227)

Seguiriya (#ulink_b1b4d0d6-4717-56c6-9295-cb62906d159b)

Dramatis Personae (#ulink_aaae1f1e-206f-50d6-aba1-13a5f55ad016)

ACT ONE

Overture (#ulink_f1f1d6e0-202b-5fb4-84cd-4b05cffc532d)

SCENE ONE: As we walk on sacred ground (#ulink_70c3fd91-dad2-567a-9398-4715acee053e)

SCENE TWO: We listen to the woes of Doña Fernanda (#ulink_5bf979bd-e0c4-579a-b1f9-17c67f4fe002)

SCENE THREE: On a stone bench, a seguiriya (#ulink_bb581116-33b4-5883-94c6-c284f930149c)

SCENE FOUR: Inside a bookstore on the Calle San Vicente (#ulink_ac4fec72-3ad3-56a6-925a-7ae67f44dcdb)

SCENE FIVE: Sorry her lot (#ulink_3bea3a7f-2315-5dcf-8224-df2117593c35)

SCENE SIX: The house on the other side of the world (#litres_trial_promo)

ACT TWO

SCENE ONE: In a Mérida square (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENE TWO: Two birds (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENE THREE: In a Mérida bookstore (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENE FOUR: A hacienda on the outskirts of bliss itself (#litres_trial_promo)

ACT THREE

SCENE ONE: Inside the oldest cathedral of the New World (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENE TWO: At the Virgen de Guadalupe Ball (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENE THREE: Ah! je vais l’aimer (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENE FOUR: A song with wings (#litres_trial_promo)