I am pretty sure David called her a nineteenth-century Cher.
By the time I got home that day, I had an image of an opera singer on a train, singing in a circus at night, and making her way across the United States, her life full of secrets.
A little research quickly showed that what I’d imagined wasn’t anything like the real Jenny’s life. But I liked my shadow Jenny better—and I knew she was the seed of a novel.
I still don’t know why David told me that story. I just know that if he hadn’t, I would never have written this novel. I cannot express how much I regret that I did not finish in time for him to read it. Any acknowledgments could only begin with him.
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This is a work of fiction. Lilliet bears only the lightest resemblance to Jenny Lind—she is not Swedish, but American born, and sings in an era where Jenny Lind is a vivid memory, not a rival. If she is meant to resemble anyone, it is Pamina, from The Magic Flute—this book is meant as a reinvention of the Mozart opera as a novel.
There are many historical figures in these pages, however, and many texts proved invaluable as a resource. I have listed them in order of appearance with any credits regarding sources.
Giuseppe and Giuseppina Verdi came to life for me first in the letters of Giuseppina Verdi, translated as a part of Hans Busch’s Verdi’s “Aida”: The History of an Opera in Letters and Documents; I was also aided by Verdi: A Biography by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz.
The scene with Cora Pearl’s famous performances in Orpheé aux Enfers and then her party afterward is a fiction based on a fiction and derives from the description of the performance and afterparty that appeared in Zola’s Nana—Zola based Nana partly on Cora, but had Nana sing the role in his novel. Some of those performance details were confirmed in Cora Pearl’s autobiography, The Memoirs of Cora Pearl.
The description of Eau de Lubin was made possible by the distinguished French perfume house Lubin, who shared their ancient recipe with me; I am grateful to them, Colleen Williams, and Barbara Herman, who put me in touch with Lubin as the scent is allergenic and so isn’t available now; thank you also to Brian Chambers, who helped me understand how the fragrance would wear.