The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice

In the thick fog of Venice, an unknown woman abandons her two children, Chiaretta and Maddalena, on the steps of a combined foundling home and celebrated musical school, the Ospedale Della Pieta. From the very beginning, the difference of the two sisters emerges even as they cling together. Chiaretta responds to the the newness of her surroundings with curiosity and an energetic enthusiasm for the beautiful voices she hears. Maddalena is a more quiet introverted soul, responding to newness with anxiety. Although she has initial difficulties advancing in her musical career, Vivaldi, a composer hired by the Pieta, sees in her a gift that her superiors do not. With his instruction to guide her, her passion for music grows from within. As a violin virtuso and Vivaldi's muse, Maddalana must balance her feelings for the man and her devotion to music. Unlike her sister, Chiaretta craves open space. Despite her love for music, her restless nature and a scandal lead her on a different path than her sister as she marries into one of Venice's prestigious and aristocratic families, facing new challenges from the petty but ever so damaging gossip mongers to wielding power of her own. Laurel Corona's THE FOUR SEASONS presents a portrait of the lives of two different sisters. Through their different personalities and choices, THE FOUR SEASONS makes 18th century Venice, a place where few options were available for women other than to marry or become nuns, come alive through the fictional lives of two of the city's remarkable women. Nurtured and challenged by two different men, a musician and an aristocrat, each woman makes a way for herself within the closed structures available to her though small choices and a passion for music. Juxtaposed to her more intimate portraits of individual women, Laurel Corona creates an intriguing and sometimes chilling portrait of a society and its relationship to women. The city's celebrated musical school creates a mystique about the virginal figlie de coro, daughters of the choir, not allowing them to be seen as they perform behind a grille while at the same time hiring them out to parties. The Ospedale Della Pieta acts as both a benefactor for women with its musical school while at the same time marketing them in ways that confine and regulate them, removing individual choices. Through a look at the two separate lives and careers of two foundling women, Laurel Corona makes present to readers a city outside the Pieta, a city brimming with life and vivacity yet a city where scandal, gossip and strict stratification can damage a woman's honor and future possibilities. Through her portrait of the Pieta, Laurel Corona shows the underside of a city beneath the public face and social structures in the lives of abandoned women, and yet at the same time, her narrative presents a compelling story of women whose lives develop from within the hidden walls of the Pieta. Laurel Corona's THE FOUR SEASONS creates a power

The love of two sisters is evident in this beautifully written novel. The story tells us about their lives in Venice during the late 1600's and 1700's, and the different paths taken.....but music keeps them forever bonded. They are abandoned as a young child and infant by their unknown mother at a Pieta(orphanage). The Pieta specializes in teaching young girls to sing or play musical instruments, and put on concerts for the public in order to earn money to stay in business. The sisters grow up, and one is a fantastically superb singer, while the other is a brilliant violinist, tutored by the great Vivaldi. The singer marries and starts her life away from the confines of the Pieta, while the other sister remains there to lead a quiet life of teaching music, and performing in a few concerts. Their lives are intertwined over the years when Vivaldi writes music for them for different functions. The life in Venice during that time in history was very difficult, especially for virginal women from the Pieta.....they either married or became Nuns. The sister's different lives had restrictions on both women, but they always remained true to themselves, and to each other. Not being familiar with Latin, Italian, or music terminology, I was slightly lost while reading this compelling story, but was heartened to find a helpful Pronunciation Guide besides the Glossary, after the end of the story. (Wish I had known about it earlier.) Laurel Corona wrote a wonderful novel that was impossible to put down, at times.

I prejudged, and I was wrong! I was in a foul mood the day I started Four Season. When I plopped onto my couch and began examining the exterior of the book, I began to get a sinking sensation (yes, you could insert the age old book cover cliché here). I loved the concept of the plot; two orphaned sisters raised in the Venetian orphanage Vivaldi taught at and composed for and how the three lives intersected and influenced each other. But I have been burned before and something on this jacket cover (I can't really articulate what) gave me the suspicion that the pages inside held the expected: superficial characters, a drawn out plot line and the sensationalistic and predictable subjugation and use of women in 18th century Italy! Wow, was I cranky or what?! I was also very wrong! Three pages... That's all it took, just three pages and I was hooked! I honestly started this book in the absolute worst mindset. I even told myself to just power through it and skim if I needed to. Yet, three short pages into this book all of that melted away. I was now emotionally invested in these two young girls who only had each other in a frightening world. I had to keep reading - not skimming, reading! I had to know that my girls were going to be okay. I needed to know that someone would be there to look out for them and shepherd them through a society that didn't exactly view women as much more than pretty things that produced heirs; and if she wasn't pretty, a nunnery was the best she could hope for. The most remarkable part of this book is the growth of these two women. I found it easy in the beginning to think of them as "my girls." Each moment I had to sit and read I was able to check in on "my girls." However, as the story progressed and they were growing up, Maddalena and Chiaretta could no longer belong to anyone, not even the reader. The Four Seasons is a magnificent surprise. Read it, I urge you! It is a story of life and the journey we all travel from childhood to adulthood artfully told. Two sisters diverge on the road of life and follow their own paths yet remain true to each other. Laurel Corona has given us a beautiful lens to watch these incredible girls grow into the remarkable women anyone would wish for as a sister, a wife, a friend. Corona even rejects the stereotype of the domineering man who must be overcome and beaten down. Men, women, the Catholic Church, the whispered customs of 18th century Venetian nobility and a demanding and controversial composer of the day are all respectfully represented and honored in this beautiful book. The Four Seasons should be placed on the bookshelf next to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, another book without a major conflict or dramatic plot twists. Both of these books allow you to follow along as the protagonists grow and learn about the world around them. These are books on the study of life and break free of the formulaic and expected.

This is the third novel in just over a year dealing with the life of Vivaldi. This one begins by telling the story of two orphans left with the Ospedale della Pieta. These sisters rise in the ranks of the famed female musicians there - Chiaretta as a singer whose looks eventually net her an aristocratic husband and her sister Maddalena as a violinist and favourite of Vivaldi who remains cloistered. The author puts some heat into this latter attachment, on both sides, whilst never quite letting the relationship become a sacking offence. This is suggestive of the composer-priest's much gossiped-of relationship with Anna Giro, but by inventing a new character the author's poetic license can be more fully used. She does this to tell us the story of the two girls' lives, loves and feelings in a way that both feels authentic and keeps us caring. The love and excitement of music are well evoked too. An easy and moving read.