Vienna Nocturne

Kate Reading's well-modulated voice works well in this story of the eighteenth-century music scene in Europe--from London to Naples and Venice. Reading captures the emotions of a young woman whose personal life is becoming ever more complicated even as her professional life is at its zenith. For one thing, she's in love with Mozart--who is married. Although Reading's narration is well done as a whole, the absence of any singing in an audiobook about a revered star of opera creates a noticeable vacuum. This is a failing not of the production, but of the source material; Shotwell's novel doesn't include any snippets of song, so Reading cannot include them either. J.L.K. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

December 9, 2013
With her debut novel, classically trained singer Shotwell channels real life English-born soprano Anna Storace, a prodigy whose family eventually moves to the continent to further her career. Shotwell takes exuberant liberties with her teenage superstar, from Anna’s voice training, beginning at age 11, by castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, to her early career in Milan and Venice—where the bold teenager embarks on a secret affair with randy “primo buffo” star Francesco Benucci—and her sponsorship by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. It’s 1783, Wolfgang Mozart is the toast of the town, and when the married composer meets Anna, the attraction is instant and undeniable. Theirs is a lush, passionate love story and, in Shotwell’s capable hands, an astutely contemporary reflection on ambition, theater, and the politics of celebrity. Along the way, Anna will endure an abusive marriage to violinist John Fisher, who’s been banned from Vienna for his brutality. She will also suffer the loss of her infant daughter (conceived with Benucci), and a near-career ending problem with her voice. Shotwell delivers a lyrical, youthful tale of love and loss set in the 18th century, but keeps it crisply modern with a blend of happy and tragic endings. The effort hits all the right notes, even for readers lacking any knowledge of opera.