Read by Emilia Clarke
10 hours, 55 minutes
Published August 2024 by Simon and Schuster
Publisher's Summary:
Anna Maria della Pietà was destined to drown in one of Venice's canals. Instead, she became the greatest violinist of the 18th century.
Anna Maria has only known life inside the Pietà, an orphanage for children born of prostitutes. But the girls of the Pietà are lucky in a sense: most babies born of their station were drowned in the city's canals. And despite the strict rules, the girls are given singing and music lessons from an early age. The most promising musicians have the chance to escape the fate of the rest: forced marriage to anyone who will have them.
Anna Maria is determined to be the best violinist there is-and whatever Anna Maria sets out to do, she achieves. After all, the stakes for Anna could not be higher. But it is 1704 and she is a girl. The pursuit of her ambition will test everything she holds dear, especially when it becomes clear that her instructor, Antonio Vivaldi, will teach Anna everything he knows-but not without taking something in return.
From the opulent palaces of Venice to its mud-licked canals, The Instrumentalist is a “searing portrait of ambition and betrayal” (Elizabeth MacNeal, author of The Doll Factory). It is the story of one woman's irrepressible ambition and rise to the top. It is also the story of the orphans of Venice who overcame destitution and abuse to make music, and whose contributions to some of the most important works of classical music, including “The Four Seasons,” have been overlooked for too long.
My Thoughts:
I first heard about this book last month when some friends and I attended the Omaha Public Library's annual Book Bash. Historical fiction that focuses on classical music, particularly Vivaldi? Count me in! I requested the audiobook while I was still at the event.
Let's get the one thing that kept me from liking this book as much as I wanted to out of the way. It was, as is so often the case, a matter of editing. I felt like there was quite a bit of repetition in the book and some things that could easily have been left out with no loss to the story. Oh, and one other thing: since this was an audiobook, I really wish there would have been more actual music involved.
And now the good. It's not surprising to so often pick up books that teach us about something in history we know nothing about; even the most well educated historians don't know everything. But I'm always excited to read a book showcasing women making the most of their power, even in times and places where they had so little of it.
Anna Maria della Pietà was a real person, who actually did grow up in the Pieta, study under Vivaldi and have some of his compositions written especially for her, and become a maestra. The Pieta was a real place where orphans were taken in and raised to be useful to society. The girls with musical talent were encouraged and the best of them placed in the figlie di coro. The figlie was widely admired and the members received extravagant gifts as well as brining in funds for the orphanage.
Constable takes that history and gives Anna Maria a beginning and a full life, filled with friends, sadness, betrayal, immense talent and even greater ambition. My beloved Vivaldi doesn't come off looking too good, but I was ok with that, given that it meant that Anna Maria could rise up and bring along with other girls with her. As in real life, Anna Maria first shows her talent at the age of eight, so what we see is a young girl desperate to use that talent to make something of herself while being too young to see how she is hurting herself (and others) even as she ascends in the figlie. The ending worked perfectly for me, with happiness for Anna Maria while still recognizing the limitations on her life and the other women.
