Agnes Nitt, AKA Perdita X Dream, is off to the big twin cities of Ankh-Morpork to join the opera, but the witches back home have other ideas for the young woman, whether she agrees with them or not.
The eighteenth Discworld book sees the remaining two witches, Granny and Nanny, lament their lack of a third since Magrat was now queen of Lancre. Nanny knows they need a third or Granny is going to sink into some dark depths, but the only local girl that she felt could work is Agnes Nitt, and she's gone off to Ankh-Morpork to be in the opera there. We quickly find that the opera is a very strange place, and what is an opera without some kind of phantom, ghost, or other mysterious figure in the wings? Besides safer, I mean.
As the two witches take the coach to Ankh-Morpork, they meet Henry Slugg. Although his fans know him as Senor Enrico Basilica. He's a famous opera singer and makes fast friends with the witches in their travels when they easily see through his foreign persona he uses for the opera. We find he's a pretty decent person. He just wanted to make something of his life after very humble beginnings, and he's a bit tired of the exotic food he's expected to eat all the time.
Agnes is a large young woman, and people make comments about that and add, 'but she has a nice personality and great hair,' and Agnes isn't exactly pleased about the 'but.' Besides her witchy talent, which I mentioned in my review of Lords and Ladies, and which both Nanny and Granny can see in her, she's also an amazing singer, so amazing in fact, that it must be linked to her witchy potential. This makes her a natural at the Opera house, where she amazes the staff with her vocal talents. At this point, Perdita is a developing secondary personality. She's Agnes if Agnes was a thin Goth instead of her rosy complexioned and quite large self. Agnes is reliable, dependable, and often taken advantage of, which makes Perdita quite upset. The Perdita aspect of her personality gets so dismayed by this fact at times, that she ends up deriding Agnes over it. She has a lot of internal issues on top of her external ones due to this situation. She is very level-headed, though. When others are screaming or fainting, she's figuring things out and pointing out things that others miss.
I've seen many fans feel that they feel seen by many of Sir Terry's characters, and Agnes/Perdita is near the top of the list of such characters. She feels real, and not just a caricature. While she is still treated humorously, just like everyone else, she is much more down to Earth and reasonable than many of the other characters. This makes her less exciting than some, but also very likeable and relatable.
We also need to mention Christine. Christine is slender and beautiful, but not very bright or talented. Luckily, she's also rather sweet, so she's more likeable than one might initially suspect. Her father, who donated a large sum of money to the opera, and the phantom, want her to be the star, but she lacks the ability to actually sing well. But since Agnes can, and she's good at projecting her voice, the heads of the opera hatch an idea to make this all work. This idea does not sit well with everyone. She passively takes advantage of Agnes, and Agnes mostly lets her, to the chagrin of Perdita.
Our two main witches make the trip to Ankh-Morpork for several reasons: they find out Agnes is in the opera, and they want her to be the third witch to replace Magrat; Nanny has written a rather risqué cookbook under a pseudonym and Granny is annoyed by that, but the publisher owes Nanny a lot of money, and Nanny wants Granny to make the trip to help keep her from falling down a dark path due to the situation. There actually is a Nanny Ogg cookbook that we can purchase on roundworld, too. I don't have it yet, but I will soon rectify that situation. While I'm sure our version of the book isn't quite as powerful as the one on Discworld, their version definitely creates some fun scenes as Nanny's recipes focus on potency for certain special activities.
The opera is a madhouse. Seldom Bucket, the former cheese monger turned owner, is aghast at the state of the company's financials, there's a ghost running around the place, a ghost that leaves messages not only with five exclamation points, but he also writes out mad laughter on these notes, there are a bewildering number of superstitions about the opera, they can't let anyone use box eight, people start showing up dead, and worst of all, Granny, Nanny, and Nanny's cat Greebo show up!
Besides Agnes, Christine, and Seldom, the opera house has a wide cast of characters that we encounter in varying degrees, from the musical director Mr. Salzella to the very unusual Walter Plinge, and many more. The Librarian even shows up to help get their broken organ fixed and to make sure the show goes on when needed. Nobby and Detritus, two of our watchmen, also show up in what one could charitably call disguise, while a new type of plains-clothes officer is also involved. Death makes a few cameos here due to all the murders and the odd final death of the book, along with the Death of Rats for one particular fatality.
This is a fun book, as Sir Terry's works always are. Nanny and Granny are always a treat, and we get to meet Agnes more fully here. While she's not as amusing as that wondrous pair, she is a great character in her own way. As always, even the most minor characters usually get some kind of history, so we get to know them a bit better, which I appreciate. It was hard to place this one exactly, so I put it just above Mort, largely from how great our favorite witches are, but the supporting cast is quite good, too. I have no idea if I learned much about actual operas here, and wonder if they're anywhere near this chaotic, but it was an excellent read, and easy to recommend as Discworld always is.
3.8125 Epic yet confusing Operas out of 4.
Some fun quotes:
"'Oh yes? Can you identify yourself?'
'Certainly. I'd know me anywhere.'"
"The Departure Aria, a very important and romantic song–
This damn door sticks,
This damn door sticks
It sticks no matter what I do.
It is marked 'pull' and indeed I am pulling
Perhaps it should be marked 'push'?"
"Nanny Ogg was relieved. You needed at least three witches for a coven. Two witches was just an argument."
Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.
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