Ransom at the Opera

Ransom at the Opera is a really enjoyable read that takes every cliche about the opera and gives it a little tweak on the nose. A young upstart opera company makes a bid for publicity by hiring a musical-comedy director to direct their opening production of Carmen. The gambit works, and they become the talk of the town (and the country) due to the popularity with the public, and the disdain of opera afficionados. The popularity brings the production to Chicago, where internal problems and jealousies lead to murder, which is then investigated by series regulars, Det. Jeremy Ransom and his friend and adoptive grandmother, Emily Charters.The book is filled with spirit and fun, gently lampooning the conventions of the opera and theater folk in general -- BTW, about the issue of opera singers smoking and drinking--apparently some people believe the stereotypes about divas being chemically pure women perpetually spritzing their throats with atomizers. I used to do makeup at the Lyric, and believe me, some of these people smoke like chimneys (yes, backstage!) and drink like fish.This book is a lot of fun.

The opening performance at Chicago's new Sheridan Center for the Performing Arts is David Cunningham and director Marc Berger's interpretation of the classic opera Carmen as a musical. Highly talented but somewhat unknown Riccardo Nuevo stars as Don Jose and Maria Cortez plays Carmen.The production, which defies operatic guidelines as the performers dance while singing on stage, is successful until the climax. In the final act, Don raises the knife to kill Carmen, but instead the actor Riccardo crumbles to the stage floor. The medical examiner reported Riccardo died from a pulmonary edema, not a probable cause of death for a healthy thirty year old. Detectives Jeremy Ransom and Gerald White are assigned to investigate whether someone poisoned the victim. They start the inquiries by visiting a friend Emily Charters who attended the show. From there, they visit the large cast and support crew trying to uncover the insider who killed the star.RANSOM AT THE OPERA, the seventh Charters-Ransom tale retains the freshness of the series that cleverly incorporates a cozy inside a police procedural. The story line is filled with several twists and turns, as numerous suspects seem viable with motive, mean, and opportunity available to them. The lead characters are fun to observe in action especially the interrelationships between Jeremy and Emily and Jeremy and Gerald. Fred Hunter turns a night at the opera into an entertaining who-done-it.Harriet Klausner