After many years, the novel Opera of the Dead by Autran Dourado from 1967 finally translated into Dutch. For the second time, as this intoxicating masterpiece by the Brazilian author was once published in Dutch almost 30 years ago.
Time had almost swallowed him up, but fortunately publishing house Koppernik decided to publish writer Autran Dourado (1926-2012), best known for the filmed Una Vida Em Segredo (The Hidden Life), from oblivion. Following the publication of The human ship, early last year, there is now another magisterial work by the multi-award-winning Brazilian. Opera of the Dead, already published in Dutch in 1997, has been translated again by Harrie Lemmens and provided with an afterword in which he highlights Dourado's work and writing style. By the way, be sure to read that afterword in advance, as it makes the reading experience even more fascinating and rich.
Opera of the Dead tells the story of Rosalina, scion of a lineage of large landowners in the state of Minas Gerais. Grandfather Lucas Procópio Honório Cota was a bully of a guy, who made his fazenda ruled with an iron hand. His son, Colonel Joāo Capistrano Honório Cota, chose the other extreme: always composed and civilised, even when his treacherous fellow townsmen shattered his dream of a political career. Without an unkind word, he turned his back on the city, locked himself in the house with his daughter Rosalina and shut out the world.
Handyman
After his death, Rosalina continues his self-imposed exile with her black housekeeper Quiquina, killing her time making fabric and paper flowers and sneaking glasses of madeira. But then José Feliciano joins her as a handyman. With his questions and stories, he gradually breaks a small crack in her armour. She realises that a person 'occasionally [needs] to hear the music of speech'. The crack becomes big enough to slip through on a drunken night. But only at night: by day she is doña Rosalina and he her servant, by night she transforms into a fiery Rosalina receiving her lover.
Making the music of speech heard, in this Dourado is a master. More than the events, it is the thoughts, the inner monologues of the characters that define the story and the rhythm. With irresistible scenes, such as the one in which José drinks a glass with Rosalina for the first time and studies her face before kissing her, or the thoughts and shame that storm through the hungover Rosalina's head the following day, Dourado showcases 'that music of speaking' in an unparalleled way.
