In gesprek met Donna Leon
Lees ook de Nederlandse versie van het interview.
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Passport
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Name:
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Donna Leon |
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Born on:
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28/09/1942 |
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Born in:
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New Jersey |
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Grew up in:
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New Jersey |
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Residence:
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Venice |
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Partner /Children:
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- |
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Personal
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| Wanted to become as a child: |
I didn't want to become anything, maybe an archaeologist. But it didn't make sense to think about these things, I just wanted to be happy. |
| Where and when did you start writing: |
That was in the eighties in Teatro la Fenice in Venice, where I was having a conversation with the conductor and his wife about another opera conductor. This gave me the idea for writing a murder mystery about a murdered opera conductor. |
| Was it difficult to write your first novel: |
It was not difficult at all, it was enjoyable. Because I've read many murder mysteries, I knew the pattern very well. |
| Most proud of: |
The recordings of several operas of Handel, Vivaldi and Conti that I've organised together with Alan Curtis in the last 7/8 years. |
| Greatest example: |
I don't have an example. |
| Loves: |
I love music. I admire singers for the quality of their singing, and I love listening to people, walking in the mountains and working in the garden. |
| Hates: |
I hate waste, which is one of the reasons why I don't like living in America, because this country is based on waste. |
| You always wanted to: |
See, or hear, more Händel operas live. (it's better to hear opera's because few stagings are worthy of the opera itself). |
| What is important to you: |
Being happy is the most important to me. |
| Most important moment in your career: |
The most important moment in my career was that moment at Teatro la Fenice where I got the idea for writing a novel. And of course being so lucky to be taken by Diogenes, my editor in Zurich, because they are responsible for my success. |
| Why don't you publish your novels in Italian? |
I don't want to be treated differently because I'm famous. I just want to live a nice invisible life, just that! |
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Favorites
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| Most beautiful place in Italy: |
That's impossible to say. I've become numb to the beauty of Venice because I live there. But each time I visit small places, like Belluno, I'm knocked down by their beauty. It's like every time you listen to an aria and you think, that's the most beautiful aria I've ever heard, until you hear the next one. |
| Favorite Italian book : |
"Sostiene Pereira" by Antonio Tabucchi. |
| Best literature classic: |
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, that is the perfect novel. |
| Best Italian movie: |
I don't watch movies. Movies bore me until I'm petrified! |
| Most beautiful Italian word: |
L'imbarazzo della scelta! (how can I choose!), I would say sprezzatura. But it is like the question about the most beautiful place in Italy, there are just so many beautiful words in the Italian language. |
| Favorite Italian artist: |
Tiziano. |
| Favorite Italian musician/music |
Cecilia Bartoli and Sara Mingardo are the best singers. |
| Favorite aria: |
At the moment Ombre Pallide from the opera Alcina by Handel, but it's usually the one I heard last. |
| Favorite recipe: |
That depends on the season: I love risotto di zucca, but ask me in spring and I will answer risotto agli asparagi. |
| Ultimate moment to relax: |
Listening to music, and sometimes English poetry, uplifts my soul. |
| Loves about Italians: |
Their love and generosity. In the past 40 years I have met the most remarkably sweet tempered and generous people. |
About ‘Through a glass darkly'
Story
On a luminous spring day in Venice, Commissario Brunetti and his assistant, Vianello, play hooky in order to help Vianello's friend, Marco Ribetti, an environmental activist who has been arrested during a protest. Brunetti and Vianello manage to secure his release, but on the steps of the Questura, they come face-to-face with Ribetti's father-in-law, Giovanni De Cal, a cantankerous glass-factory owner.
De Cal has been overheard in the bars of Murano making violent threats against Ribetti. Brunetti's curiosity is piqued, and he finds himself drawn to Murano and its fornace, where his father once worked, to investigate. Is De Cal the type of man to carry out his threats? By all accounts he is constantly angry, bullying suppliers and fuming against environmentalists. Then the body of De Cal's bookish night watchman is found in front of the blazing furnace of the glass factory, and Brunetti's investigation turns serious. Did the old man kill him?
An annotated copy of Dante's Inferno, found at the scene of the crime, may contain the clues Brunetti needs to solve the murder-and uncover who is ruining the waters of Venice's lagoon. But Brunetti needs the help of his wife, Paola, a professor of literature, and his daughter, Chiara, who should be doing her Latin homework. Over long lunches, on secret boat rides, and in quiet bars, as the weather heats up, the flowers come into bloom, and the tourists return in droves, Brunetti searches for the night watchman's killer. But can he unravel the poetic clues before the unseemly death is allowed to be forgotten?
Theme
Political correctness, the contrast between new and old, ecology, crime.
Which character can you identify with the most?
Both Brunetti and his wife Paola, because their conversations represent the two sides of my political mind. Brunetti reacts passionately and violently, while Paola remains calm and thinks that violence is not the answer.
Which passage do you like best?
The passage I like the best is the one I still laugh about: Paola is banging on the current head of government, which she calls Hobbs, and she refers to him as ‘nasty, brutish and short'.
What is the message you want to tell the readers?
I don't give messages, I just tell stories. There are so many Americans that give messages, I don't want to be one of them.
Do you have anything to add?
People always ask me why I write so many bad things about Italy. In order to write a murder mystery, there have to be some bad guys in the story, one of the basic elements is a corrupt society. But it is important to underline that I only write terrible things about a country in which I live, but I think terrible things about America, and I don't want to live there!