About the Author Ann Patchett Patchett is an American author and journalist born in 1963 in California and raised in Nashville by her writer mother. Her first novel sold to a publisher within 24 hours of submitting it while she was in her twenties: The Patron Saint of Liars, She has also authored Run, State of Wonder, Truth and Beauty, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, which contains a compilation of numerous non-fiction articles and essays for popular magazines like Vogue, GQ, Seventeen, Gourmet, and the New York Times Magazine. Bel Canto, her most famous and widely read work, was published in The psychological thriller involves the tensions surrounding an embassy siege by terrorists. The novel won an Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award—both prestigious literary acknowledgements.

Background to the Novel Patchett loosely based her novel on a real embassy siege by Marxist guerillas. Túpac Amaru (Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, MRTA), a Peruvian revolutionary group founded in 1983, is best known for holding 490 people hostage in the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru. The 127 day ordeal in 1996 was an effort to gain the release of jailed comrades. The original Túpac Amaru, the last leader of the Inca, who was executed by the Spaniards in Amaru was the last leader of the Incas, who was executed by the Spaniards in In 1780, Túpac Amaru II led Peruvian peasants in the final rebellion against Spain before independence.

More Background Pictures Peruvian commandos keep watch over the embassy during the weeks-long standoff.

Bel Canto Musical Style  Bel canto is an Italian musical term meaning "beautiful singing.”  It is a vocal technique which originated in Italy during the late seventeenth century. Rossini ( ), Bellini ( ), and Donizetti ( ) best exemplify this style, which flourished from approximately 1805 to  Bel canto singing focuses on perfect evenness throughout the voice, skillful legato, a light upper register, tremendous agility and flexibility, and a certain lyric, "sweet" timbre.  Operas of the style feature fast scales and cadenzas.  Bel canto emphasizes technique rather than volume. A singer holding a lit candle to her mouth and singing without causing the flame to flicker is the epitome of this control.

Renee Fleming, Opera Singer  Patchett, who knew nothing of opera before writing the novel Bel Canto, studied the amazing talent of American opera star Renee Fleming, whose musical genius becomes the basis of one of Patchett’s characters.

A Little Singing by an Opera Star  – 2014 Super Bowl  – Puccini opera

Epigraphs to the Novel  – Sumi Jo, Korean soprano – Malinconia, ninfa gentile - Bellini  – Pavarotti, tenor  – Mozart, The Magic Flute

Other Opera Singers: Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman Duet