Customer Reviews

The Virtuoso

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This work by Ms. Margriet de Moor is very well written, however I believe it will appeal to a narrower group than some other works in the same genre. The Neapolitan setting is wonderfully detailed but is merely a side note to the dominant first person narrative.

And the narrative is a bit unusual in that the woman who is the center of the work has a variety of affairs, intimately detailed but not lurid, however her obsessive affair is with a "Castrato". The book is massively detailed for the musically literate, however for those of us not familiar with the unique singing skills of this physically modified man, the detail can be an impediment to seeing what the Author intends, the larger your musical lexicon the more this story will appeal.

The idea of a love affair between this unusual pair could easily sink into a voyeuristic trudge, but this never happens as Ms. De Moor writes well, and when describing the intimacies never descends to the prurient.

A very good book that should be approached cautiously, for the musically very well informed a wonderful read, for those looking for a bit less romance search elsewhere.

What a joy to read literature by an author who can manipulate and craft language to cast a totally enthralling spell over the reader and take one back to another era and place!I was pulled into the love story of the aristocratic Carlotta and the castrato virtuoso singer,Gasparo from the first pages.Margriet de Moor has done her homework on 18th century Naples.One can almost taste,feel,and breathe the atmosphere and her description of an opera performance at the San Carlo Opera house is phenominal.A little knowledge of 18th century Neapolitan opera doesn't hurt but is not necessary to enjoy this rich elegant novel.All in all Ms. de Moor has scored a bullseye.Brava! Brava!

Historical fiction can be the most interesting andfascinating of all novels.Observing another society in a time long passed, stretches your imaginationin a way contemporary fiction cannot. The storyof Carlotta and Gasparo inThe Virtuoso by Margriet DeMoor is a wonderful exampleof this type of fiction.I was completely fascinatedby their story and the society their lives werelived in. A read like this,gives you a completely differant take on our own time and place. I highlyrecommend it!

This book reminds me of Suskind's 'Perfume' on many accounts. Both are translations into English. Both are set in Europe of the 18th century, and both have left me disappointed. The Virtuoso is the story of Italian noblewoman Carlotta and her love/crush on the male soprano Gasparo, whom she remembers from her village childhood. So far, so good. But i find that i can't feel anything for any of the characters in this disjointed book. De Moor is a trained singer, and fills the book with technical terms. A background of music study at tertiary level meant i could understand what she was writing, but i didn't feel that it added anything to the story. I couldn't help but imagine that someone without a musical background would find it outright annoying.

Do you love romance? Do you love opera? Do you love history? Do you love Naples? If you answer "Yes" to any of the foregoing, Margriet de Moor's THE VIRTUOSO is a book for a lover such as you.

De Moor's story is richly sensual -- not in the lubricious but in the fullest sense of that word. With great power and beauty, she makes you see and hear, taste and smell, touch and feel what her characters are seeing and and hearing, tasting and smelling, touching and feeling.

The story is poignant and powerful, and manages also to be informative as it moves swiftly yet without any sense of haste to its ending. As with any richly sensual experience, the reader is apt to finish this book with only one regret: that it was altogether if ever so sweetly too brief.

While I enjoyed the musical history of Baroque opera in Naples, I found this book to be a tedious read. In part this was because of an awkward translation and weak editing. I grew tired of the poor grammar, misuse of words, and even a few misspellings. (For example, a character is named "Vito" but is mentioned in the next paragraph as "Vico." Such things are trifles, but they are distractions from the writer's intent.)

This book was originally advertised as a novel, not as a romance. If you're looking for a period romance, you may enjoy this book. If you aren't a fan of bodice-rippers (I'm not), save your time and money.

Anne Rice did it better and first.