Many novels are illustrated with drawings or photos. Now, thanks to the internet, we have one illustrated with music.

 

The novel is Clementa by Jim Martin, and the music is introduced—and in some cases sung—by Dara Armstrong of New York City on the website clementanovel.com. Dara is accompanied at the piano by Zoe Nishimuta of Loveland, Colorado.

 

Off-screen, Dara and Zoe were coached by Dr. Juliana Bishop Hoch of Loveland, artistic and executive director of Loveland Opera Theatre. And the whole show—actually a series of short videos—was written and produced by Robert Hoch, Juliana’s husband and president of Evergreen Information Systems, Inc. Rob also designed clementanovel.com, the website where the videos can be seen.

 

Dara, Zoe, Juliana, and Rob created the videos from June to August, 2008, in Loveland.

The novel won’t hit bookstores until October, but the website can be visited now.

 

How does music illustrate the novel? Linda, one of the main characters in the novel, is a singer who mentions particular opera passages as she recounts her adventures. Readers can visit clementanovel.com and hear those passages sung.

 

Both Dara and Rob have had starring roles in Loveland Opera Theatre productions. Most recently, Dara performed the role of Pamina and Rob performed the role of Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Dara has recently relocated to New York City, where she is pursuing a career in opera.

 

Zoe is a professional pianist in the Loveland area.

 

Juliana and Rob are busy preparing for Loveland Opera Theatre’s Fall Gala, which will be held on October 18 at the McKee Conference Center in Loveland, as well as planning LOT’s next fully staged production, Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love.

 

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For more information, please go to LOT’s website www.fortnet.org/LOT

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Many novels are filled with foreign names that readers don’t know how to pronounce—and therefore don’t remember very clearly. Now, thanks to the internet, we have a novel that comes with a video lesson on pronouncing those names.

 

The novel is Clementa by Jim Martin, and the video stars Danbury resident Patrizia Farina, adjunct professor of Italian and Latin at Western Connecticut State College. The video can be viewed on the website clementanovel.com. There Patrizia and her compatriot Manrico Caglioni give the correct pronunciation of several of the names in Clementa and explain how Italian spelling works.

 

Manrico is president of Book Automation Inc. in New Milford.

 

Behind the camera recording the video was Manrico’s daughter Caroline Caglioni, a student at Joel Barlow High School in Redding. Patrizia assembled the crew and produced the video.

 

Patrizia, Manrico, and Caroline recorded the video on 10 August 2008 at Western Connecticut State College in Danbury. Manrico edited the footage at home.

 

The novel hit bookstores in October 2008.

 

Why do the names in Clementa need a lesson on their pronunciation? Because they’re spelled the Italian way— naturally enough, since Clementa takes place in Italy. And Italian spelling differs from English in some interesting respects.

 

Patrizia and Manrico were both born in Italy, but they met in Connecticut. At the Benedictine Grange, a small church in Redding, Patrizia heard some people talking in Italian, and one of them was wearing an Atalanta sweat shirt. Atalanta is a soccer team from Bergamo, Italy. Patrizia addressed the young man in the sweat shirt and met Daniele Caglioni, his mother Susan, and his sister Caroline. Susan is American but lived in Bergamo for several years. Daniele and Caroline were born there, and their father is Manrico. Now Patrizia and the Caglioni family are good friends.

 

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