How Music was Used in Bel Canto

According to Dictionary.com, "Bel Canto," is a style of operatic singing characterized by full, even tones and a brilliant display of vocal technique. After reading and observing the book, I was able to see how music was used strongly as a theme, clearly from the title, and the writing itself was almost lyrical. The voice of the author, Ann Patchett, was melodic, and full of warmth and compassion. However, I feel that this story lacked adequate authentication in the description of the involved settings and characters, especially in the opening sequence.

The story takes place in an unnamed South American country. It's government, attempting to lure industry from Nansei, a fictional organization, but quoted from Chapter One to be, "the largest electronics corporation in Japan." has invited its CEO, Katsumi Hosokawa, to a private celebration honoring his fifty-third birthday. This magical evening was to be held at the home of the host country's Vice President, Ruben Iglesias, who is also fictional. The highlight of the evening, which guaranteed Mr. Hosokawa's appearance, was an intimate song recital to be given by Roxane Coss, who, according to the story, was the world's greatest lyric soprano and Hosokawa's favorite opera singer.

At the point of the party where the lights went off, and the accompanist kissed the soprano, a group of 18 terrorists entered the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts and took the 58 party guests hostage, among them Katsumi Hosokawa, Roxane Coss, and an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. The terrorists' plan was to kidnap the country's president, who stayed home that evening to watch a favorite soap opera, so they were ill-prepared when they discovered he was not among the guests. They quickly released many of the hostages, keeping only the fittest and those who provided the greatest bargaining power. Roxane Coss was the only woman who was forced to remain. The Vice President quickly got out of the way of the terrorists, who had no interest in him at all. While vacationing, a Swiss Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner was called into service to arrange the terms and demands for the hostages release.

During four and a half months of hostage captivity, the dynamics of the story shifted dramatically, as the lines between captors and captives began to blur. Hosokawa's gifted translator, Gen, who was attending the party with him, managed to bridge the linguistic gaps between all the inhabitants of the mansion. Roxane Coss also managed to create a bridge, as her daily singing offered everyone, including the terrorists, a means of nonverbal communication. With this communication came an understanding that all of the people involved had a common humanity. Alliances, friendships, and romantic attachments began to form, and as time stood still for the hostages and the realities of the outside world faded from their memory, a makeshift family was formed.

Through literary analysis, I found that the way in which Ann Patchett ended this story provided an example of world peace and acceptance. What began as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolved into a new understanding, as terrorists and hostages forged unexpected bonds, and people from different countries and continents became compatriots. This is an adult novel, in which Patchett used the language and emotion of music to explore the unexpected relationships which blossomed between the jungle-born, ill-educated terrorists and their sophisticated hostages, who were very experienced in worldly matters. A character study was made of the inner workings of people not used to sharing their feelings.

It took a long time for me to fully digest this story, but I enjoyed reading it very much. Being a music lover myself, it was easy for me to recognize, and then respond to Patchett's writing style. The intensity of the theme, and the underlying style of the written words were both drawn from the grace, beauty, elegance, and magic of opera.

Sources

1.)Dictionary.com, "Bel Canto Definition|Definition of Bel Canto at Dictionary.com" Dictionary.com