Maskerade (Discworld)

Terry Pratchett's satirical eye doesn't spare anybody or anything, and in his nineteenth Discworld book "Maskerade," it's opera's turn to suffer. In his typically barbed prose, he gleefully spoofs the "Phantom of the Opera," lampoons opera in general, and takes the opportunity to take everyone's favorite witches out to Ankh-Morpork.

Magrat Garlick is newly married and crowned. As a result, Granny Weatherwax is moody and bored, while Nanny pens an erotic cookbook -- and when it turns out that she's being cheated of royalties, Granny decides to go to Ankh-Morpork and confront her publisher. Meanwhile, the primary witch-maiden candidate, Agnes Nitt, has also gone to Ankh-Morpork to become an opera singer.

But the opera isn't all it's cracked up to be -- Agnes finds herself providing the voice for pretty, airheaded Christine, and the opera ghost is causing some major disasters. Granny and Nanny immerse themselves in the backstage -- and onstage -- drama of the opera, trying to figure out who the Phantom is... and why he's a friend one minute and a foe the next.

It's obvious that the opera holds no awe for Pratchett. Sure, the novel is a spoof of Gaston Leroux's novel, but Pratchett's real intention here is to constantly make fun of the opera, both as entertainment and art form. The entire climax of the book is devoted to making fun of opera's illogic, lack of acting, and such time-honored traditions as a dying person flawlessly singing for about fifteen minutes before expiring.

But it's not all opera spoofery. Despite some grisly deaths and the psycho Phantom (who sends notes filled with maniacal laughter), getting the witches out of Lancre gives the whole story a light, fun feel. It has some darker scenes, such as Granny playing cards with Death for a baby's life, but most of it is dedicated to the witches doing the sort of weird things they'd never do at home (impersonating duchesses, for one).

Pratchett sprinkles the storyline with hilarious dialogue, wacky situations (Nanny Ogg moonlights as the world's fattest ballerina), and some swashbuckling. And he includes a small message as well, about being the sort of person we actually want to be -- and how "masks" on the outside can change us.

Agnes Nitt has a lot of pagetime, but she seems rather fussy and pallid next to Granny and Nanny -- we get to see just how strong their friendship really is, despite their bickering. Granny shines especially, courtesy of a shopping spree, some coach rides and some dodgy darkish magic. And we have a wide array of timid janitors, annoying managers and airheaded sopranos to round out the cast.

"Maskerade" is a gleeful, glorious spoof of opera in general, and a fun outing for the Lancre witches. Definitely a solid entry for Pratchett.

Maskerade review. (0/0 people found this helpful)

Maskerade is another show-stopping book by Terry Prattchett.In Maskerade a normally well-behaved phantom at the Ankh-Morpok opera house has started to hinder the performances and Granny Weatherwax,Nanny Ogg,Agnes Nitt and Greebo the cat must uncover his true identity before he drives the opera house to its final curtain.If you like reading sci-fi,fantasy or even going to the opera then read Maskerade.If you enjoy this book then try books 3,6,12,14 and 23.

what a night at the opera! (1/1 people found this helpful)

This was the first Pratchett book I read, and I was blown away right from the outset. The characters are very well rounded and easy to identify with, meaning you can really get into the book and be interested in what happens to Granny Weatherwax, Gytha Ogg and Perditax. Pratchett has written a very skillful parody of the Phantom of the Opera, and it leaves you giggling the whole way through. The very final scene is both a fitting end and funny with it, something not many authors achieve. Ive remained a massive fan of Pratchett, but this book is my favourite, Ive read it many times, and will do so again in future.

A tragi-comedy worthy of good libretto (6/6 people found this helpful)

Pratchett has an outstanding capacity to research a topic, then present his findings with peerless clarity and wit. This book presents so many aspects of theatre production, operatic lore and, amazingly, book publication they're nearly overwhelming. His prose and humour leave us breathless with mirth and astonishment. Still, one has to wonder what motivated the writing of Maskarade. It's a departure from previous Discworld efforts.

Magrat Garlick's married and out of the coven. This imbalance must be restored. Her potential replacement is a new Pratchett character, Agnes Nitt. Agnes, however, has a different career in mind. She wants to be a diva in the opera troupe in Ankh-Morpork. A lofty ambition, indeed. And a voice lofty enough to project throughout the hall - right up to the loft, in fact.

As always, the opera business is fraught with problems. Underpaid [and underfed] choir girls, prima donnas who consider their voice grander than its quality justifies, eccentric crew, and the ever present issue of money. Oh yes, and there's a ghost - with a reserved box seat.

If the Ankh-Morpork's opera team wasn't having enough to deal with, they are about to be confronted with the remnants of Lancre's witches' coven, Esme Weatherwax and Gytha Ogg. Nanny Ogg's become the Julia Childs of the Ramtops, but with variations on a particular theme. She's published a book about it, but Granny Weatherwax isn't convinced the payment justified. Esme Weatherwax as an author's agent is a formidable figure. As if this transformation wasn't enough, she also becomes a patron of opera.

Pratchett's gone slightly awry from his usual path with this book. He raises a host of pretty serious questions with the characters and the plot. It's still in the best of PTerry's style - his wit through the persona of Granny and Nanny Ogg has, if anything, improved. But there are some issues uncommon in Discworld books, and the reader is left more than just entertained. There's some post-laughter thinking required of the reader. Opera is, after all, serious business. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

AN EASY HIT (6/9 people found this helpful)

A newcomer to Pratchett these days would have had to be in some very out-of-the-way spot indeed not to be aware at least of his huge popular following, and this particular production came to me borne on a tide of hyperbolic commendation from no less than the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, Starburst, the Irish Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday. My own solitary encounter with the author before turned out to be a children’s book, Johnny and the Bomb, and the provisional impression I had formed of him from that was that he was obviously talented and obviously had a sense for how to reach a mass market with demeaning himself in the process, but that he made things easy for himself in some ways, not all of them ways I greatly liked. In particular I would certainly have noticed even as a child how indebted that story was to Richmal Crompton’s Just William series, and as a senior citizen I hadn’t forgotten and was slightly put off.

I hadn’t got far into Maskerade before I found some of the 1-line witticisms jarring on me slightly. They may be original for all I know, but Johnny and the Bomb had left me slightly suspicious of Pratchett in that respect, and they come across as being applied like self-adhesive stickers rather than being integral to the story or even to the general style. Chandler is a past master of that sort of thing, Pratchett’s efforts read to me like lines he got from somewhere and wants to use somewhere of his own. However there are more important things about the book, such as the plot, the characters and the setting, and I am certainly impressed by both the talent and the professionalism. Pratchett knows how to put a story together and hold it together. The switching between scenes and characters is done with effortless smoothness, and the narrative as a whole achieves a very skilful sense of climax and conclusion. The characters are engaging and I suppose up to a point original, and I could say the same about the story-line.

However this is where I start to feel a few reservations. Pratchett seems to me to focus very well on a particular kind of fantasy and he doesn’t fall into the trap of mixing genres. His cast of witches and yokels is perfectly convincing, and the more outr� personae such as the unseen ghost and the were-cat, fit in very well, as even does the debonair and unfrightening figure of death himself, who for some inscrutable reason always TALKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS, much as the ghost leaves messages in stylish copperplate script. What exactly do features like these really add to the story, I wondered. In general, all the same, it all had too much feel of a formula or recipe to me. I understand that Maskerade is part of a series, and that the characters are well known to the author’s large following, of whom I am not yet a part and perhaps never shall be. I could not even guess how many paperback collections of fantasy stories I have picked up over the decades for journeys by train or by air. Some authors of these made a vivid and lasting impression on me, such as Ray Bradbury or J G Ballard, but for the most part my memory doesn’t differentiate among them, and I slightly suspect that this is where Pratchett might have belonged if he had not been brought to my notice so forcefully. He picks his way carefully among different styles, taking good heed not to challenge some of the established masters. Thus his setting vaguely reminds me of Gormenghast, his humour vaguely recalls to me Clark Ashton Smith, and to tell the truth most of it vaguely recalls to me something I can recall only vaguely if at all. It’s one way of establishing an individual niche, but hardly the most distinctive or memorable way. My recollection reverted enviously to a hilarious series that the late Peter Cook used to write in Private Eye about a bunch of old codgers called the Seductive Brethren – Sir Basil Nardley Stoads, Sir Arthur Starborgling etc. Whether this was ever collected in book form I don’t know, and I expect Cook was drunk most of the time (it certainly reads that way), but if you want to find real fantasy with real imagination and real originality it’s worth researching.

I liked it, but I can’t join in the Hallelujah chorus, I’m afraid. I have just given an undertaking to a fellow reviewer to try one more book by Pratchett. This may change my impression, and of course it hardly needs saying that my opinion is nothing more than one man’s individual taste although I have tried as best I can to say why. Whether Pratchett and I will be going much further together is something I shall know shortly, but I can perfectly well understand how he will find many others willing and eager to join his club.

Terry Pratchett

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Reader Reviews:

Maskerading as (0/0 people found this helpful)

Maskerade review. (0/0 people found this helpful)

what a night at the opera! (1/1 people found this helpful)

A tragi-comedy worthy of good libretto (6/6 people found this helpful)

AN EASY HIT (6/9 people found this helpful)

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