Comments on: when women couldn’t sing

By: Alexandra Korey

Alexandra Korey — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:32:15 +0000

Now I know I’ll have to pick up Sacred Hearts at the English bookstore here in Florence! I have read all of your other books, Mrs. Dunant, and enjoyed them. I’m a harsh critic as I’m a professor of art history, but I’ve always found your research impeccable.
I wonder where you will find your next story. I hope it’s still in Italy… maybe here in Tuscany? Or maybe down south…

By: Elizabeth Loupas

Elizabeth Loupas — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:46:02 +0000

I will be first in line to buy a book about the singing ladies of Alfonso II’s court! It is truly an amazing and unexpected story, and one that should be better-known. Ferrara was (and is) unusual indeed.

By: Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:47:39 +0000

Oh yes, yes Elizabeth I know about them. In fact one of the two fabulous women who started Musica Secreta who I am working with on this concert is currently researching a book on those very ladies. But Ferrara was unusual as I am sure you know too. When I talk about SH I wlays menton that at the time it is set Shakespeare would have been 6 years old and was going to write the greatest canon of dramatic works ever known to man, with fabulous parts for women, but that during his lifetime ( and afterwards) they all would have been played by men. History! Amazing eh?

By: Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:43:46 +0000

Tammy, they’ll be an eight hour difference. So I guess that we”ll sing first, then you can sing afterwards while we sleep it off. Please include stormy Monday in your set.

By: Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:41:29 +0000

Aaah Mary, you don’t know how nearly I gave up on this book during the first months of writing. So thank you for the graceful praise. I am about to go into the library in search of the next one, so your words will keep me warm when the going gets tough. As it always does!!!!

By: Mary Hehir

Mary Hehir — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 02:00:04 +0000

I am immersed in Sacred Hearts currently. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read! How can you write about life in a convent in Ferrara in Renaissance Italy as though you had actually LIVED it?? It’s truly amazing!

By: Tammy

Tammy — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:54:27 +0000

That’s Tammy, not Tama. I know, it *was* very loud in that bar. At least Portland isn’t smoky anymore. I wish I could make it to St. Bartholomews. I’ll just have to go out and do some singing myself in honor of the day…

Tammy

By: Elizabeth Loupas

Elizabeth Loupas — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:58:41 +0000

Hi, Sarah… I am a big fan and loved SACRED HEARTS.

You know, there were respectable secular ladies who sang publicly at the court of Ferrara, only slightly later than the time of SACRED HEARTS. Alfonso II d’Este’s Concerto delle Donne was officially formed about 1580, and the ladies actually sang informally for the duke and the court in the 1570s. If only Duke Alfonso could have heard Serafina sing… perhaps he would have developed his consort of professional singing ladies a few years earlier!