Rewrite and Commentary - The Queen's Soprano

Rewrite

Our Song, Our Truth

What will I carry with me?

Besides the unsung songs bursting inside me.

One suitcase. Inside that suitcase;

Theodon’s letters.  One mourning gown.

Three day frocks. Undercloths.

A plum-coloured shawl. A hairpin for protection.

A silver hairbrush, comb and mirror.

So little.

In the end, leaving is not so hard as staying.

It will take time to know myself in a new world.

I would trust. My song. My truth.

Dark skin and harsh accent,

With soft hands and warm smiles.

Looked down on but wise in words,

Schiavo, with a lack of freedom,

She far from home just like I,

With only a few belongings,

Less than what I brought.

She carries a song with her,

Her voice carries as she works,

Singing words strange and magical,

Lei si fida sua canzone. La sua propria verità.

She has a smile,

A comfort when times are hard,

Though her song sings of her home,

The family she has lost,

La libertà non ha più.

I see them punished,

Harshly in the square,

They carry their heads low,

Their shoulders slummed.

One step out of line,

Is what they paura,

Though fight they do,

For passage back to their home,

Where libertà is what they had.

They carry a song with them,

Their voices carry when they work,

Singing words strange and magical,

Si fidano delle loro propria canzone. La propria verità.

Left Behind

Looking back,

Is hard.

Memories,

Shared no more.

Loved ones,

Gone.

New faces,

Different.

Harsh hands,

Hurt.

Scared of them,

I am.

Voice carries,

Soos 'n engel.

Beautiful,

Songs,

I never heard before.

Sad past,

In her eyes.

Fight,

Is what we do,

Huis,

Is where we want go.

She is kind,

To me.

White faces,

Don’t understand,

Huis we want to return,

Gesin,

Want to see,

Lost they are.

Songs we sing,

Calling,

To the lost,

The land,

Left behind.

Commentary

 ‘The Queens Soprano’, by Carol Dines, is a story based on the real life story of 17 year old Angelica Voglia. It is set in seventeenth-century Rome which was divided into quarters, at the beginning of the story the Pope has ‘rule’ over three quarters while Queen Christina keeps hold of her quarter. The Pope has forbidden women from singing in public. Angelica’s mother is determined to marry her off to a wealthy nobleman. In an attempt to be able to sing in front of an audience and to escape the forced marriage Angelica flees to Queen Christina’s quarter to become the Queen’s Soprano. Sadly at the end of the story Queen Christina becomes ill and eventually dies, the Pope takes rule over her quarter and Angelica has to leave Rome. She leaves with a Duke and Duchess to start a new life in Spain.

This is where my re-write takes place.

In the last chapter of The Queen’s Soprano Angelica see’s slaves chained on a ship in the harbour, “As I started at a huge vessel docked along the harbour, I saw dark-skinned men, chained on deck. Slaves, I realised. I couldn’t read their faces. Couldn’t read their hearts. But I knew… knew what it was not to choose for yourself. To have your fate chosen by someone else. I’d always believed that freedom came from rising up in society. But now I understand there were many kinds of freedom, and the most important for us is the freedom to look inside out own heart and speak the truths we find there.”  This is a strong image that stuck with me from the very first time that I read the book. I took this idea of the Slaves within Europe.

The first poem, ‘Our Song Our Truth’ is written from the point of view of Angelica, once she is in Spain, as she see’s the dark-skinned men and women who are now slaves, mostly it is about her ‘hand-maid’. I included words and sentences of Italian to emphasis them. The first stanza is lines from the last chapter of the book, as I thought this would be a good way to start it off, to tie it altogether.

The second poem, ‘Left Behind’, is almost a re-write of the first one as it is from the point of view of Angelica’s hand-maid. It is written in broken English and Afrikaans is used to put emphasis on words that are important.

Both poems include the motif of song and singing, as I feel that this was important throughout the novel, I also know from studying history that the African slaves were often heard singing while they worked in the fields and such, so I felt that it was important to add this in as well.

I also included the theme of freedom and trying to find it, this is most obvious in ‘Left Behind’ though the first poem still has the theme running through it.