Death at La Fenice

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Come on, Paola, you know I’m always wrong when I try to work by intuition, when I suspect too much or I suspect too soon.” (199) This month World Book Club talks to award-winning American writer Donna Leon about her celebrated novel Death at La Fenice. Leon's novels sell well in Switzerland, but she can go about her business undisturbed there. "Everyone is invisible in Switzerland," she has said. In Venice, she is regularly bailed up by people in the grip of Brunettimania, many of them from German-speaking countries ("The centre of the cult is Austria," she says). Venetians themselves leave her alone because, at her insistence, the books aren't published in Italian. What a ripping first mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself. Sparkling and irresistible.' Rita Mae Brown In Leon's fifth Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery, the beating of renowned art historian Dotoressa Brett Lynch draws the contemporary Venetian police detective out of his warm and loving home Continue reading »

Donna Leon has given fans of subtle, clever and literate mysteries something to cheer about. . . . A wonderful read.' Tony Hillerman Read more Look Inside Details A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read. The third in Leon's richly evocative mysteries set in Venice and starring police Commissario Guido Brunetti reveals several flaws in Brunetti's character--some endearing, some disquieting, all Continue reading » The heady atmosphere of Venice and a galaxy of fully realized characters enrich this intriguing and finally horrifying tale, the fourth featuring Guido Brunetti, the stalwart and worldly Commissioner Continue reading »A world-famous German opera conductor has died at La Fenice, and Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti pursues what appears to be a murder investigation without leads. Turning, the artistic director fumbled at the curtain, unable for a moment to find the opening through which he had come. Disembodied hands parted the curtain from behind, and he slipped through, finding himself in the bare garret where Violetta was soon to die. From out in front, he heard the tentative. applause that greeted the substitute conductor as he took his place on the podium.

What a ripping first mystery, as beguiling and secretly sinister as Venice herself. Sparkling and irresistible.” –Rita Mae Brown The fragility of Venice has always been part of its allure. Here is a city built atop wooden posts driven into the muddy floor of a lagoon. It has been slowly sinking since records have been kept. But scientists say climate change is accelerating the pace at which the water is rising: the mean level in the lagoon is 30 centimetres above the level recorded in 1897, and there are increasing incidences of acqua alta, or "high water", when a mix of tides and winds causes flooding of shops and houses. Twelve years ago, construction began of a massive flood protection barrier – a system of hollow gates designed to swing up on hinges and create a temporary sea wall when needed. Venezianisches Finale. Commissario Brunettis erster Fall. Roman. Aus dem Amerikanischen von Monika Elwenspoek. Originaltitel: Death at La Fenice. - (Diogenes Taschenbuch, detebe 22780).We don't actually witness many killings in Leon's books. By the time Brunetti arrives, the yellow tape has gone up around the crime scene. "I'm as one with Aristotle on this," Leon has said. "Do the bloody deed off-stage and then have the messenger come in and describe it." He glanced up into the horseshoe of the still darkened hall, tried to smile, failed, and abandoned the attempt. “Excuse, ladies and, gentlemen, the difficulty. The opera will now continue.” Music is a source of consolation to Leon. "I can't sing," she says. "And I can't read music. I just like it. Particularly baroque music. Particularly baroque vocal music." The operas of Handel are her idea of heaven. With the money earned from her books, she has supported two European opera orchestras, Il Complesso Barocco and Il Pomo d'Oro. Besides providing funds, she travels to performances, writes program notes and organises recordings. As far as she is concerned, this is her most important work. "I'm not particularly proud of the books. I'm much prouder of the music." Such is Brunetti's popularity that an industry has grown up around him. Visitors clutch copies of Brunetti's Venice: Walks with the City's Best-Loved Detective. They take home Brunetti's Cookbook. A German production company has made 20 Commissario Brunetti telemovies, which Leon assures me are "pretty bad". She reconsiders. "No, they're not bad. They're very, very German." This has not stopped the books’ popularity in other countries; a German TV series featuring Brunetti began in 2000, called simply Donna Leon , and has continued to release two episodes per year. I was unable to find a copy of this show to watch it, but was interested to see that Julia Jäger, playing Paola, was nominated for an Adolf Grimme Award for her acting in the series. Based upon the trailer I found for the show, it looks like the series has tried to stay true to the novels, and if you enjoy watching foreign language murder mystery shows, you might like Donna Leon .

In Death at La Fenice, the career of a world-famous conductor with a Nazi past ends abruptly – between acts two and three of La Traviata – when he drinks a cup of coffee laced with cyanide. Leon put the manuscript in a drawer and left it there for a year. Then a friend insisted she enter it in a competition, which she won. Since the prize was a two-book publishing contract, she felt obliged to produce a second Brunetti mystery. Before she knew it, she had embarked on a third, then a fourth, though she still wrote the books for her amusement as much as anything else. (For editing the first three, she paid her university colleague, Toni Sepeda, in prosecco.) Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, is the first of the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy. The novel won the Japanese Suntory prize, [1] and its sequel is Death in a Strange Country (1993).Fasini rubbed his hands together briskly, as if the gesture would help him decide what to say. “Maestro Wellauer has been . . . ” he began, but he found no satisfactory way to finish the sentence. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. The series’ popularity has also led to the publication of a cookbook, a tour book of Venice based upon Brunetti’s own walks, and a walking tour of Venice authorized by Donna Leon. Overall Reaction: Leon has a long-held policy of escaping the city in the warmer months, when the crush is at its worst, but it seems to her that the tourist season is now practically year-round, and that for the dwindling number of permanent residents (58,000 at last count, down from 120,000 three decades ago), living in Venice feels increasingly like camping out in a theme park. There is little violent crime in Venice, a serenely beautiful floating city of mystery and magic, history and decay. But the evil that does occasionally rear its head is the jurisdiction of Guido Brunetti, the suave, urbane vice-commissario of police and a genius at detection. Now all of his admirable abilities must come into play in the deadly affair of Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice.

Commissario Guido Brunetti, out of a sense of guilt and at the urging of his compassionate wife, investigates the suspicious death of a disabled man, Davide Cavanella, in Leon’s intriguing 22nd Continue reading » Murderers aren't the problem in Venice. Tourists are. Millions of them arrive each year, surging in eager waves into Piazza San Marco, swarming through the Doge's Palace, squeezing onto the water-buses, known as vaporetti, that ply the Grand Canal. Growing up in New Jersey, Leon was the kind of conscientious kid who finished her homework before she went out to play (as an author, she delivers manuscripts on time or even early). But as she grew older, she realised she was completely devoid of ambition. "I just wanted to have fun." After finishing university, she accompanied an old schoolfriend to Italy and found an entire nation in tune with her philosophy. "I was just blown away by it," she says. "By the food, by the coffee, by the people. By how pretty the people were. They're the most beautiful people on the planet." Blinded, Fasini shot up his a arm to shield his eyes. Still holding his arm raised in front of him, as if to protect himself from a blow, he began to speak: “Ladies and gentlemen,”and then he stopped, gesturing wildly with his left hand to the technician, who, realizing his error, switched off the light. Released from his temporary blindness, the man onthe stage started again. “Ladies and gentlemen, I regret toinform you that Maestro Wellauer is unable to performance.” Whispers, questions, rose from the audience, silk rustled as heads turned, but he continued to speak above the noise. “His place will be taken by Maestro Longhi.” Before the hum could rise to drown him out, he asked, voice insistently calm,”Is there a doctor in the audience?”

a b Heald, Tim (May 7, 2009). "Interview: Donna Leon Talks About Corruption and Death in Venice". The Telegraph.