Gabriella's Voice [Paperback]

Michael J. Vaughn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 2000

Fifty-year-old Bill Harness is on a strange but seemingly benign journey, rambling across the country in an old Pontiac and anonymously leaving large checks with promising young opera singers. His fuel, however, is sorrow, and it isn't until he arrives in Seattle and befriends Gabriella Compton, a phenomenally talented soprano, that he is able to address the three great tragedies of his vocally gifted family.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Michael Vaughn has composed a literary opera that combines love, tragedy and music into a memorable tale of talent and artistry. -- BookPage, Review by Gregory Harris, December 2000

The narrative of Gabriella's Voice is by turns rousing, lyrical, and intoxicating. ... Bravo, Michael J. Vaughn. Bravo. -- The Montserrat Review , Review by Calder Lowe, Executive Editor

About the Author

Michael J. Vaughn was born in Brunswick, Maine, where his father, a Navy pilot, flew P-3 Orion submarine runs over the Atlantic during the October Missile Crisis. His childhood in the military subsequently brought him to Pennsylvania, Whidbey Island, Washington State (just across the Puget Sound from Bainbridge Island, the setting of "Gabriella’s Voice"); Hawaii, and San Jose, California, where he has lived since 1973.

Vaughn is a graduate of the now-defunct Peterson High School in Sunnyvale (one of his classmates was ice skater Brian Boitano), and earned a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in choral music from San Jose State University in 1984, singing tenor with the San Jose State Concert Choir. He has worked as a theater and opera critic since his graduation, mostly for Metro Publications in San Jose and the Palo Alto Weekly. From 1989-1992, he was publicity director for Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts in Saratoga.

Vaughn is the author of the choral novel "Frozen Music" (Northwest Publishing, Salt Lake City, 1995) and the illustrated storybook "An Agnostic Christmas" (Dragonfly Press, Chicago, 1999). For "Gabriella’s Voice," he received a 1998 Novelist Fellowship from Arts Council Silicon Valley. His poems have been published in more than two dozen literary journals, winning an Editor’s Choice Award from Plainsongs literary journal (Nebraska) and an Honorable Mention in the Emily Dickinson Poetry Competition (Arizona).

Vaughn lives in San Jose, California, where he works as an opera and theater critic, serves as Fiction Editor for The Montserrat Review literary journal, plays drums with the blues band Randie and the eDawgs, and plays shortstop and left field on various softball teams. Much of the background for "Gabriella’s Voice" was inspired by soprano Jennifer Der Torossian and the Bay Shore Lyric Opera Company in Capitola, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Dead End Street, LLC (February 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929429959
• ISBN-13: 978-1929429950
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,603,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael J. Vaughn is the author of twelve novels, most recently "Billy Saddle," inspired by the story of Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman. Vaughn is a regular contributor to Softball West magazine in Nevada, and has played for 25 years, currently as left fielder for Pro Signs in Los Gatos, CA. He is a contributing editor at Writer's Digest, and covers opera for The Opera Critic website. Vaughn plays drums for the San Francisco rock band Exit Wonderland and performs - as does his title character - as a jazz vocalist.

Vaughn is also an active poet, with more than 100 poems published in journals both off- and on-line. He enjoys hiking the beautiful beaches near his hometown of San Jose. Vaughn graduated from San Jose State with a journalism degree and a classical voice minor. He was born in Brunswick, Maine, and spent much of his childhood shuttling around the country, courtesy of his father Harold's career as a pilot with the US Navy.

Vaughn is currently working on "The Popcorn Girl," a psychological intrigue based in Marin County, CA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nitpicking a sour note in a grand aria, May 7, 2001

By 

William Jeske (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gabriella's Voice (Paperback)

If you were to take a violist and a soprano to the top of a high cliff and pushed them off, which would hit the ground first? Who cares! Actually, the violist will land first. The soprano would stop halfway and ask for direction. Didn't need an appreciation for music or singing to find the humor in that, did ya? Well, you won't need either to appreciate Michael J. Vaughn's "Gabriella's Voice." "Gabriella's Voice" chronicles about a year in the strange but plausible relationship between 50ish Bill Harness and 29 year-old soprano-cum-diva Gabriella Compton. He's got a dubious past whose recent pastime is visiting opera companies and leaving huge anonymous donations, which ultimately leads him to Seattle. She's one of the last of the classically trained "bel canto" singers who dreams of the big time without selling out by resorting to contemporary singing styles. Eventually the pair begins a friendship built more on affection than on romance. Bill's family has apparently been pitched three tragic knuckle balls, the last of which prompted Bill to 'retire early' and go about his philanthropic pilgrimage. Vaughn's vehicle of an operatic novel succeeds in taking this seemingly haughty theatre form away from the high-culture fast lane and swerving it into the carpool lane. Graciously, he keeps the pace at a nice cruising speed to take us on a scenic route of opera company history and hijinks without slowing so as to demystify opera's grace and elegance. It, is, however, just a tour. "GV" will no doubt appeal to the already opera savvy, but probably won't succeed in indoctrinating the uninitiated. Actually, sometimes you may get the feeling that Vaughn is so caught up in peppering his prose with Italian opera lingo or other high-brow theatre-speak that he comes close to betraying an agenda of using his novel as a manifesto about opera-company politics. And just as a baton-waiving, scraggly-haired conductor sometimes places unrealistic demands on the orchestra or the choir, Vaughn's novel occasionally asks the more pragmatic reader to accept Bill's strange requirements in order to tell his tragic stories to a doubtfully eager-to-please Gabriella. The first story is kind of a flick to the nose. The second is like a punch in the gut, and the third like a sledgehammer to the back of the neck. Definitely 20th century family tragedies--no argument there--but they make it difficult to label this a "comic novel." "Gabriella's Voice" is an ambitious story that could have been just as impressive if not for Vaughn's request that we suspend believability a little more than usual for Bill to have his breakdowns and then expect us to believe that the educated, sophisticated Gabriella would actually accommodate him and stroke his oh-so-tragic soul. Eventually, Bill reluctantly begins to trust Gabriella with these three tragedies, but only when she arranges for the time and setting to be just right. The place, the lighting, the ambiance... oh, puh-lease. But that's a minor complaint compared to how Vaughn brilliantly introduces keen insight using poetic descriptive devices rather than stock prose devices to build some memorable and exciting characters and situations. Find a good, Bohemian cafe, one that knows how to prepare a con panna--the right way--and go read this in the large out-of-place chair next to the dusty bookshelf and the old piano nobody ever plays. Just make sure the lighting is just right.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gabriella's Voice, April 24, 2001

By 

GaeTina, a special education teacher (San Jose, CA., USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gabriella's Voice (Paperback)

I really loved the book. The references and metaphors to the opera were enchanting, even to myself who knows very little about the opera. You don't need to be an opera fan to enjoy the beauty of the arts, but if you are, you will enjoy it all the more. It is a subtle, but intense love story with unexpected surprises and revealations- mesmorizing!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Tale for an Opera Lover, April 19, 2004

By 

K. Calen (Rome, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gabriella's Voice (Paperback)

Let me just start with this statement: I loved this book. I am a budding opera singer, finishing my master's degree in voice performance, and I literally stumbled upon this book. For opera lovers-- and I mean people who love opera for opera's sake, not because it's supposed to be upper class or anything silly like that-- should love this book. Here's a brief glimpse into the book (this is a hard one to describe without giving away subtle plot twists and intricate nuances.) Bill Harness is a 50-something type of vagabond who travels around to various opera companies and distributes money to promising singers and opera houses. In Washington, he stumbles upon a brilliant young opera singer, Gabriella Compton, whose voice not only entrances him, but seems to cry out to his very existence. Gabriella is initially concerned that Bill is just a dirty old man who is trying to seduce her, but they soon become the best of friends. As the book progresses, we catch glimpses of Bill's past and the reasons why Gabriella affects him so much. By the end of the book, I was rooting for Gabriella's career and Bill's catharsis, especially with the surprise ending. Beyond Bill and Gabriella, one encounters a myriad of fantastic characters, including "Jersey" the mezzo-soprano who initially captures Bill's attentions, Joe-- the baritone who reminds me of every baritone that I've ever met, Rodrigo-- the amazing, but nervous toe-tapping tenor, cameo appearances by the diva Licia Albanese, and -- my personal favorite-- the Maestro, Gabriella's teacher and head of the opera company who studied music as a young man with the incomparable Puccini. The thing that is really wonderful about this book is that Vaughn writes like a real person. He views opera as something to be loved and enjoyed, and not necessarily revered or something to cause awe, although he does grant that aspect to his view of Gabriella's performances. I recommend this book whole-heartedly. A basic knowledge of opera and the Italian language may make the read easier, but it is not necessary to enjoy this book. A wonderful read, it is also fast-paced with just enough suspense to keep you guessing. You won't be disappointed. Enjoy!