Authors: Stephanie Burgis
“I do. Of course I do! But Sophie, you could leave, as well. You could begin again.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Sophie blinked. “Lotte, you really have gone mad! Why would I ever want to leave?”
“Becauseâno. Never mind.” Charlotte gently drew her fingers away. “I'll write to you, I promise. Will you write back?”
“When you're abandoning me?” Sophie's voice broke. “I can't believe you would do this to me. How can you? How can you leave me again?”
Charlotte stood up, drawing a steadying breath. “I do love you, Sophie. You know that. But I can't spend my life looking after you.”
Sophie pushed herself up in the bed, shoving the fashion plates aside. “What about Maman? And Father? How do you think they'll feel, when they hear what you've chosen? What do you think Maman will say? And your stepsons! They'll be humiliated! Not to mentionâ”
“I'm sorry,” Charlotte said. “But I've spent my entire life doing what would make everyone else happy. Now I need to find my own happiness.”
Sophie's eyes narrowed into slits. “No one will even lower themselves to speak to you! Have you considered that? You'll be an outcast from good society. You'llâ”
“Forgive me, Sophie,” Charlotte whispered. She nodded for the maid to open the bedroom door. “Goodbye.”
Carlo was waiting for her in the corridor outside. As the door closed behind her, Charlotte stumbled and nearly collapsed, trembling. He caught her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her up.
“You amaze me,” he whispered into her ear.
Charlotte couldn't stop weeping. Sobs shook her, even as she clung to his shoulders.
Her mother's venomous words, all those years ago . . . Sophie's, now . . .
“She's so unhappy,” Charlotte whispered, “because of me. Because I'm abandoning her. Again. And this time, it really is by my own choice.”
Carlo's shoulders rose and fell with his sigh, but his embrace did not weaken. “She has made her own choices,” he said. “And she will grow accustomed to yours, my love, I'm certain of it. Just give her time. She'll be writing to you within the month . . . if only to tell you of all the pleasures here you're missing.”
“Perhaps,” Charlotte whispered. She pressed her face into his coat, absorbing his warmth, as her sobs slowed and she found her breath again. “Perhaps,” she repeated. Her voice shook. “Oh, my love. I do hope you're right.”
They left Eszterháza two hours later, in one of the Prince's carriages. Sophie hadn't come out to see them off, but the Princess had, along with her two companions. Monsieur Jean beamed up at them like a fond uncle, while even Asa looked quietlyâand surprisinglyâapproving.
“You're choosing a brave path, Baroness,” said the Princess. She was a picture of elegance even in her bandages, her wide, stiff skirts embedded with glittering threads of gold and silver. “I am most impressed.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.” Charlotte curtseyed, holding the older woman's gaze. “And you?”
“I?” The Princess smiled. “Why, I will be leaving soon, as well. My husband has finally agreed to let me spend my summers at the palace in Kismarton, far from here. My . . . negotiation techniques have succeeded at last. I only need travel with him to Vienna in the winters, to stand by his side before the Emperor and Empress.”
“Congratulations,” Charlotte said sincerely. “I wish you great happiness, Your Highness.”
The Princess nodded her dismissal, and Charlotte turned to the carriage. Carlo already stood by the door, waiting for her. His fingers felt warm and sure against hers as he helped her up. By the time she had finished arranging her great silk skirts around her in her seat, the door had closed, and the carriage had rolled into motion.
Charlotte took a deep breath as they rode out through Eszterháza's great gate, leaving the golden palace behind them.
She rode with the most famous castrato in Europe, leaving family, honor, and prudence behind.
It felt absolutely marvelous.
Charlotte laughed out loud in sheer delight as she looked across at her lover. He smiled back at her, his face smooth and rounded, feminine and masculine, alien and beautiful all at once, and he raised her hand to his lips.
They rode away from Eszterháza, into their future.
HISTORICAL NOTE
The original opera house at Eszterháza really did burn down in 1779, destroying many priceless Haydn scores, but as far as I know, no alchemy was involved. And that's pretty much how this book goes, historically; I took lots of real historical figures and issues and then worked alchemy around them.
Prince Nikolaus was, of course, a real person; so was his wife, who fought exactly the battle described in this novel to win her freedom and independence, once Prince Nikolaus started living with a public mistress at Eszterháza. In the end, the Princess won the same concessions in real life that she did in my book, although I assume she used different methods along the way. Her two closest companions at Eszterháza were Asa and Monsieur Jean in real life, too, although the historical record only notes their short statures and their names, leaving me to imagine their personalities for myself.
Prince Nikolaus's real-life mistress was an even more enigmatic historical figure. She was only referred to in code in Haydn's letters, which described her prominence at court but left even her name a mystery. I've taken that mystery as an opportunity to create her personality out of thin air and to give her a sister of my own inventing. Charlotte is entirely fictional, as is Carlo.
Count Radamowsky is also invented, although I was inspired in his creation by reading about some of the exploits of the real-life Count von Thun. Ignaz von Born was a real and fascinating person, an alchemist, a Freemason, and a political intriguer, and his death in my bookâyears before his death in real lifeârepresents my one really huge leap from the historical record.
If you'd like to find out more about Eszterháza itself in the time of this book, Mátyás Horányi's
The Magnificence of Eszterháza
is definitely the best place to start, and it's available in both the US and UK in affordable secondhand editions. H. C. Robbins Landon's
Haydn: His Life and Work
is a great introduction to Haydn himself and his working life at Eszterháza, and for a more in-depth approach, check out Robbins Landon's
Haydn at Eszterháza, 1766â90
, which was a major resource for me as I wrote this book.
There are several great books about the castrati singers of the eighteenth century, including Patricia Howard's
The Modern Castrato: Gaetano Guadagni and the Coming of a New Operatic Age
, Helen Berry's
The Castrato and His Wife
, and Patrick Barbier's
The World of the Castrati: The History of an Extraordinary Operatic Phenomenon.
I wouldn't personally recommend the movie
Farinelli
, but I would recommend its soundtrack. Not only is the music gorgeous, but the way that the voice of the singer was mixed gives us the closest hint we can get nowadays to what a castrato at the height of his powers might have sounded like.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you so much to everyone who critiqued this novel along the way: Patrick Samphire, Sarah Prineas, Justina Robson, Beth Bernobich, Marcy Bauman, Ben Burgis, David Burgis, Shawna McCarthy, and Delia Sherman. I appreciate your help so much!
Thank you to my historical performance professor at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, David Breitman, who was so helpful and generous when I emailed him out of the blue, many years after my graduation, to ask detailed questions about period-appropriate instruments. And thank you to Laurence Libin, who gave such thoughtful answers to my questions about the instruments that Charlotte would have played.
Thank you to all of my music history professors along the way, who inspired me with passion for the subject. Thank you to Des Harmon for first sparking my interest in the castrati singers of the eighteenth century through a fantastic talk given while we were grad students together. And thank you so much, especially, to Julian Rushton, my wonderful PhD supervisor at the University of Leeds, who helped me explore all the fascinating, intricate pathways of opera and politics in eighteenth-century Vienna and Eszterháza, and then supported me even when I decided to change careers completely. This is not exactly the book-length manuscript that you expected to result from my years of study . . . but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
Thank you so much to Jenn Reese for sending me such perfect feedback just when I needed it most, and to Justina Robson for baking me an amazing Esterházy torte in celebration when I finished the first draft of this book. Thank you to Rosalyn Eves for sending me photos of Eszterháza at just the right moment. And thank you to Tricia Sullivan for telling me to “Go for it!” so many times over the years.
Thank you so much to my husband, Patrick Samphire, for your love, support, insightful critiques, and great company on so many research trips to various palaces and historic sites across the years. Oh, do I know how lucky I am!
Thank you to Barry Goldblatt, Heather Baror-Shapiro, and Tricia Ready for so much hard work on my behalf, and thank you to my wonderful editor, Rene Sears, for bringing this book into the world and editing it so beautifully. Thank you to Sheila Stewart for thoughtful copyediting, to Peter Lukasiewicz for finding just the right blurbs, and to Lisa Michalski for publicizing
Masks and Shadows
so enthusiastically.
And finally, thank you so much to my readersâboth the ones who are coming fresh to my work with this book and the ones who made the leap with me when I jumped between genres. I really appreciate it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Burgis grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, and was a Fulbright scholar in Vienna, Austria, where she studied music history, attended the opera as often as possible, and ate far too much apple strudel. After spending three years as a PhD student studying the opera and politics of eighteenth-century Vienna and Eszterháza, she moved into the more practical side of opera studies by going to work for an opera company in the north of England. Nowadays, she lives in a small town in Wales, surrounded by castles and coffee shops, with her husband, fellow writer Patrick Samphire, and their two sons. She's published three historical fantasy novels for children and over thirty short stories for adults. You can find out more at her website:
www.stephanieburgis.com
.