The Mapmaker’s Opera. Bea Gonzalez

      BÉA GONZALEZ

       The

      MAPMAKER’S OPERA

Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      HarperCollinsPublishers

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      First published in Canada by HarperCollinsPublishers 2005

      A paperback original 2006

      Copyright © Béa Gonzalez 2005

      Béa Gonzalez asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

       HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780007207794

      Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780007386505

      Version: 2016-08-24

Dedication

      For Andrew, who taught me to look up at the sky, and our dear pingüinos, Will and Andre, who bring such joy to our lives.

Seguiriya

No soy d’esta tierra	I’m not from this land,
Ni en eya nasí:	Nor was I born here;
La fortuniya, roando, roando	Fate, rolling, rolling
M’ha traío hasta aquí.	Brought me this way.
Ar campito solo	To the fields
Me voy a yorá;	I wander to weep;
Como tengo yena e penas	Filled with such sorrow and grief
El arma	It is only solitude
Busco soléa.	I seek.
Las cosas del mundo	The things of this world,
Yo na la jentiendo.	I just don’t understand
La mitad de la gente llorando	Half of the people cry,
Y la otra riendo.	While the other half laugh.
Horas de alegría	The happy times
Son las que se van	How fleeting they are,
Que las penas se queden	While the sad times
Y duran	Last and last
Una eternidad.	An eternity at least.
Arbolito del campo	The little tree in the field
Riega el rocío	Is watered by dew
Como yo riego	Like I water the cobblestones
De tu calle	Of your street
Con llanto mío.	With the weight of my tears.
Cuando yo me muera	When I die
Mira que te encargo:	I ask you do this for me:
Que con la jebra de tu	Take a strand of your
Pelo negro	Brilliant black hair
Me amarres las manos.	And bind my hands with it.

Dramatis Personae

Emilio, a seminarian	Tenor
Mónica, governess in the house of Don Ricardo Medina	Mezzo-soprano
Remedios, mother of Emilio	Contralto
Doña Fernanda, wife of Don Ricardo Medina	Contralto
Don Pedro, priest and confidant of Doña Fernanda	Baritone
Raimundo, master of the Medina house	Bass-baritone
Don Ricardo Medina, head of the Medina clan	Baritone
Alfonso, bookseller and Emilio’s uncle	Bass
Diego, son of Mónica and Don