Bel Canto Analysis

Everything except the Epilogue takes place in one house and garden in an unnamed country in South America. Sounds like simplest setting ever. But like lots of things in Bel Canto, the setting isn't...

Patchett is using third-person omniscient viewpoint to tell her tale, and dang, it's impressive. She uses this technique to move seamlessly from moment to moment, character to character, often in a...

It's hard to pin this one down. While Patchett may describe her work as "fairy tale," the narrative style works not quite like that. But it's not really a realistic novel about everyday life either...

The tone of this book makes it clear we're not in for a tense political thriller or a matter-of-fact realistic novel. From the beginning, the book dwells warmly on moments of art and experience, an...

Ever listen to a singer or an actor whose voice gives you a little chill down the spine? Maybe it's Adele or James Earl Jones. Some voices just demand attention and that's all there is to it. Patch...

First things first: the title is in Italian. But it's pretty easy to pronounce even if your Italian skills aren't up there with Gen's. And it sounds kinda pretty, right? Well, it should, since Bel...

Sprecher: Ihr Fremdlinge! was sucht oder fordert ihn von uns?Tamino: Freundschaft und Liebe.Sprecher: Bist du bereit, es mit deinem Leben zu erkämpfen?Tamino: Ja.Speaker: Stranger, what do you see...

We're not gonna lie. This book has a strange and not-too-joyful ending. Not to mention it basically ends twice: once when the government forces break in and shoot all the terrorists, and the second...

You may trip on a branch or two, climbers of Shmoop Mountain, but just barely. Mostly, Ann Patchett's prose is easy to follow, and there's not a lot of complicated historical information to absorb....

Party! With Opera. Here's a party invite you don't get every day. An unnamed country in South America wants Japanese businessman Katsumi Hosokawa to do business with them. There's no better way to...

We often think of the voyage-and-return story as being about one brave, solitary hero, maybe Luke Skywalker in the moment when he's heading off to Dagobah alone (well, okay, alone except for R2-D2)...

Bel Canto whips through Act 1 pretty quickly. Basically all the characters are irrevocably committed to the action as soon as the terrorists pop into the party and everyone realizes they're stuck t...

Real opera stars like Bel Canto, too. Famous opera singer Renee Fleming helped get Bel Canto made into an opera. (Source) Not a fan of opera? Neither was Ann Patchett before Bel Canto. Check out Pa...

There's some sex in Bel Canto, including Roxane's affair with Mr. Hosokawa and the trysts between Gen and Carmen. And we hear tons of people's inner thoughts; some, though really not that many, do...

Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto (1.8-9, 2.101-102)Rigoletto is the first opera Mr. Hosokawa ever went to, the one where he fell in love with opera on his eleventh birthday (1.8-9), as we find out in Chap...