海角大神

'The Queen of the Night' blends opera and mystery into a grandiose read

Loosely inspired by the life of opera singer Jenny Lind, Chee's new novel drips with romance, betrayal, intrigue, and espionage.

Fourteen-plus years after his Whiting Award-ed debut, 鈥淓dinburgh,鈥� hit shelves in late 2001, literary social media-darling Alexander Chee returns with The Queen of the Night, in which another 鈥� albeit very different 鈥� soprano takes center stage. 鈥淓dinburgh鈥� was a slim novel about a Korean American boy in a Maine boys choir who falls prey to the choir director; voluminous in comparison, 鈥淨ueen鈥� introduces a Midwest American teenaged orphan who transforms herself into one of Europe鈥檚 most lauded opera stars.

Chee鈥檚 sophomore title began, he explains in his 鈥淗istorical Notes,鈥� as a 1999 conversation on a New York City street with the late writer David Rakoff who shared 鈥渁 long story about the opera singer Jenny Lind,鈥� who Rakoff described as 鈥渁 nineteenth-century Cher.鈥� While Chee鈥檚 eponymous Queen of the Night 鈥渂ears only the lightest resemblance to Jenny Lind,鈥� his novel is pure opera, with all the over-the-top, larger-than-life machinations that make the dramatic medium such an obsession for its countless devotees.

鈥淲hen it began, it began as an opera would begin, in a palace, at a ball, in an encounter with a stranger who, you discover, has your fate in his hands,鈥� Chee opens. 鈥淭he year was 1882. The palace was the Luxembourg Palace; the ball, the S茅nat Bal.鈥� I was the soprano. I was Lilliet Berne.鈥�

On that still-warm autumn evening, the stranger is Fr茅d茅ric Simonet, a writer who approaches Lilliet with an 鈥淸i]ncredible鈥� story about a young girl singer 鈥� 鈥淸t]hey called her the Settler鈥檚 Daughter, and she was said to have been rescued from the savages and able to sing only a single song her mother had taught her.鈥� The girl performs originally in Canada, sings for Emperor Napol茅on III who is so moved as to gift her a ruby brooch, and then vanishes seemingly forever into the Paris streets.

Simonet and an unnamed composer friend hope that Lilliet might agree to originate the role of the singer in their opera-to-be. 鈥淚t would be a stupendous coup 鈥� and ensure the opera鈥檚 success,鈥� Simonet insists. Innocently, he asks, 鈥淎nd you, well, who better for the Settler鈥檚 Daughter 鈥�?鈥� Lilliet, as it turns out, 鈥渒new all about her.鈥� Lilliet 鈥渉ad been her.鈥�

As the only daughter in a Minnesota Methodist farming family, she was a tomboy with a blessed voice. When she fails her Bible test at church, her mother silences her prideful singing by gagging her; ironically, that ability to become mute will serve her well in the decades that follow. When typhus makes her an orphan, she heads east, reinventing herself again and again. She appropriates the name by which she will be best known 鈥� Lilliet Berne 鈥� from a three-year-old鈥檚 New York City gravestone before she crosses an ocean and eventually reaches Paris.

Set just before and after the fall of the Second French Empire, Chee鈥檚 heroine morphs through multiple identities 鈥� untrained maid, circus equestrienne, courtesan, mistress, prisoner, convent student, royal dresser, spy 鈥� to finally become an internationally renowned opera star. That her hidden, past lives are about to become a major public spectacle sets in motion Lilliet鈥檚 magnificent, almost-600-page search for whodunit.

Over five Acts, Chee reveals Lilliet鈥檚 many metamorphoses through her complicated, most intimate relationships with her self-proclaimed owner known always and only as 鈥渢he tenor,鈥� her first and single love, and a discarded royal mistress who perhaps wields the most power of them all. From role to role, Lilliet moves to the next tableau vivant 鈥� a popular form of 19-century entertainment, meaning 鈥渓iving picture鈥� 鈥� reinventing herself at the whim and demands of ever-changing scenes.

鈥淗ow many women are you?鈥� her will-be lover asks. 鈥淎 legion鈥� Lilliet answers 鈥� from the Settler鈥檚 Daughter to Lilliet to Jou Jou to Sidonie, back to Lilliet. Dovetailed into all the fictions, Chee provides Lilliet a supporting cast of historical figures, from composer Giuseppe Verdi and his wife Giuseppina, singer Cora Pearl, the Comtesse de Castiglione, singer and teacher Pauline Viardot, novelist Ivan Turgenev, writer George Sand, and, of course, the Emperor Louis-Napol茅on and his Empress Eug茅nie.

The sprawling result might not make for a perfect novel 鈥� it鈥檚 messy, convoluted, repetitive, and drawn out. And yet 鈥淨ueen鈥� undisputedly reigns as the grandiose, ostentatious opera it was meant to be: romance, betrayal, erotic fantasies, intrigue, espionage, murder, jealousy, bed-hopping, power, secrets, class, war, and even a balloon escape 鈥� all set to an opulent soundtrack that ranges from nonsense verses to sweeping arias. Yes, if opera be the fruit of such epic love, what else can we readers do but read on.

Terry Hong writes , a book blog for the .