“Handel’s operas to a wider public” – Crime Novelist Donna Leon

Donna Leon

An interview from the series
“People who impart music”

In a few years the complete 42 operas of George Frideric Handel will be published on CD, including many which we have never heard before. However, the propelling strength of this project is not a record company and not an opera house, but a writer: American bestselling author Donna Leon. She is famous for her crime novels about the Italian Commissario Brunetti. None less but 16 cases she let him solve up to now, one per year. These books were also filmed successfully for television. Her 17th book (title: “The Girl of his Dreams“) has just been published.

However, when Donna Leon doesn’t deal with her Commissario, she follows her second passion: the music of George Frideric Handel. Especially his operas have done it to her. “I attend six or seven Handel performances a year”, she said in an interview with the International Music School Berlin. And explained: “Many are those performed by Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco, where I also attend the rehearsals, but I also go to Paris or Zurich or Munich.” One she’d like to see most is “Alcina”, “because it is my favorite of the operas”.

But Donna Leon doesn’t only hear and watch the works. She also uses every opportunity to inspire other people for Handel. For example, when she gives readings of her novels, mostly she talks about George Frideric Handel, too. Some years ago she developed a concert program that exclusivly contained Handel arias which acted from magicians like Melissa, Amida or Alcina. In April this year Donna Leon spoke at the ARD tv program “Handel – Der Film “ about the life of the composer. And in May she gave a musical literatery evening with the ensemble “Il Complesso Barocco” at the Wolfsburg theater.

Originally, Donna Leon studied (and taught) English literature. Today she works as an author. So we asked her, how she got all her knowledge about the music of George Frideric Handel. Her answer was pretty modest: “I’m a professor of literature by training, not at all a musician, so I can’t say anything professional about Handel’s music, nor would I attempt to do so. I spend a certain amount of time with musicians, I read about music, and I listen to what other people say. “ Hence the question, what she likes so much about Handel’s music. “The special thing to me is that listening to his music gives me more pleasure than does listening to the music of any other composer”, she replied. “I really can’t say anything more than that.”

A big concern of Donna Leon is the recording of the 42 operas which George Frideric Handel has composed. Among them are some works which weren’t performed for centuries or were rediscovered only now. A lot of them are played by the musicians of the ensemble “Il Complesso Barocco” under their conductor and founder, Alan Curtis. Again and again they work with some of the best soloists like Joyce DiDonato, Ann Hallenberg, Maite Beaumont (all mezzo-soprano), Karina Gauvin (soprano) and Sonia Prina (contralto).

We asked Donna Leon, what’s her contribution to the work. “I attend the rehearsals and recordings and often go on tour for performances with the orchestra”, she said. “I’m not sure I do much more than listen to them play and sing and then listen to them talk, make an occasional suggestion here or there, go out and get the mineral water for the rehearsals.” However, Conductor Alan Curtis disagreed with that when he said about Donna Leon at the “Handel – Der Film” program: “She has been an enormous help for the orchestra and me. She has done more for Handel than anyone else I know.”

And how did she become part of the project? “It’s not a project, not in any way”, she explained. “Alan Curtis and I are old friends. About twelve years ago, we joined forces and enthusiasm to try to make Handel’s operas available to a wider public.“ The recordings are animated by pleasure and are not intended to meet some master plan. Their focus is clear: “The feeling of the listeners is far more important than that of the performers.” What is it like to impart these seldom or never before heard musical works to other people? Donna Leon refuses to take credit, handing it to the musicians: “I don’t really do any imparting because I don’t perform.”

However, the next time you have the chance to hear Donna Leon, perhaps with a re-run of the Handel Film, note the radiance in her eyes and her enthusiasm when she talks about her favorite composer. It’s really inspiring.

Finally, we asked Donna Leon what she’ll do when the last Handel opera is published on CD. “Luckily, no recording is definitive”, she replied. “After all of them are recorded, then they will be recorded by other orchestras and singers.

By Wieland Aschinger

More about Donna Leon on the internet:
http://www.donnaleon.co.uk/