"Bel Canto" is the fourth book written by American author Ann Patchett. It was published in 2001 by Perennial, a part of HarperCollins Publishers. The book won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It was listed on several top book lists, including Amazon's Best Books of the Year (2001). The story was also adapted into an opera in 2015.

The novel is based on the Japanese embassy hostage crisis, also known as the Lima Crisis, which happened in Lima, Peru, from 1996 to 1997. The story follows the relationships between a group of young terrorists and their hostages, who are mostly high-profile executives and politicians, over several months. Many characters develop strong friendships, and some form romantic relationships.

Opera is an important theme in the story. The Italian term "bel canto" means "beautiful singing."

Plot summary

The story takes place in a South American country that is not named. It begins at a birthday party held at the home of the country's vice president to celebrate Katsumi Hosokawa, the chairman of a large Japanese company and a fan of opera. The party is also a way to encourage Hosokawa to invest in the country. A famous American singer named Roxane Coss is scheduled to perform during the event as a special attraction.

Near the end of the party, a group of terrorists enters the house and plans to take the country's president hostage. When they learn the president is not present, they decide to take everyone at the party hostage instead. Later, the terrorists choose to release most of the hostages but keep a few who they believe are most likely to pay a large ransom.

As the situation continues, two romantic relationships develop. The first is between Roxane Coss and Katsumi Hosokawa, who form a strong connection despite not speaking the same language and being unable to talk to each other. The second relationship is between Gen, a translator, and Carmen, a young terrorist. They must hide their love because of their opposing sides. The two meet secretly every night in the china closet.

At the end of the story, government forces enter the house and kill all the terrorists. Most of the hostages are freed, but Katsumi Hosokawa is shot and killed during the conflict.

Years later, in an epilogue, two former hostages, Simon Thibault and his wife, meet with Gen and Roxane. They are in Italy, where Gen and Roxane are preparing to get married.

Characters

Katsumi Hosokawa is a Japanese business leader who is married and has two daughters. He has a close relationship with his young translator, Gen. Since he does not speak Spanish, he depends on Gen for all communication in the host country. He has loved opera since childhood, after attending a performance with his father. He is especially fond of soprano Roxane Coss, whose recordings he has listened to. He falls in love with her during their time together, though he knows their relationship can only last as long as the standoff continues. In the final scenes, he is shot by soldiers of the host country while trying to save Carmen, a teenage terrorist.

Roxane Coss is an internationally famous American soprano. At first, she keeps her distance from other guests, but she later connects with them after receiving a box of musical scores and singing to them each morning. She forms meaningful relationships with Mr. Hosokawa, with whom she falls in love; Gen, whom she marries; Carmen, who sleeps in her bed, braids her hair, and comforts her; and Cesar, a young terrorist with a talented singing voice whom she begins teaching.

Gen Watanabe is Mr. Hosokawa’s translator and assistant. He is quiet, sensitive, and skilled in several languages. As the translator, he is often at the center of the story, though he is the only hostage, besides a priest, who is not very wealthy or powerful. He starts teaching Carmen to read and write in Spanish and English, and they meet each night in the china closet to study and eventually form a romantic relationship.

General Benjamin is the most thoughtful of the three generals leading the terrorists. He was once a schoolteacher until his brother was arrested for distributing flyers for a political protest. After this, he joined the terrorist group La Familia de Martin Suarez, named after a ten-year-old boy who was killed while handing out flyers for a political rally. He has left behind a wife and children and is caring to some of the young terrorists under his command. He suffers from shingles, which cover much of his face.

Joachim Messner is a Swiss representative for the Red Cross who negotiates between the government and the terrorists. He is the only person allowed to enter and leave the mansion. He often reminds others that the situation will likely end badly, even when people are happy.

Carmen is the terrorist who loves Gen. At first, she hides her identity as a woman by pretending to be a male terrorist. General Benjamin notices how beautiful she has become and comments, “If she had been this pretty before, I never would have let her join.” She often prays to Saint Rose of Lima. In the final shootout, she is shot before Gen can reach her. Later newspaper reports do not mention her existence.

Simon Thibault is the French ambassador to the South American country where the story takes place. He is unhappy during the long standoff because he misses his wife, Edith, who is released early with other women and children. He spends much of his time cooking for both the hostages and terrorists and often wears Edith’s scarf. After the standoff, he is reunited with Edith, and they witness the marriage of Gen and Roxane in the final chapter.

Creative process

Patchett was inspired by the Lima Crisis after watching news reports about the event. She thought the crisis was very dramatic, like an opera. Before writing the book, Patchett had little experience with opera. However, she based the character Roxane on Karol Bennett, a friend who was an opera singer. Since Patchett had never heard Bennett’s voice, she listened to recordings by the famous American soprano Renée Fleming and imagined that Roxane’s voice sounded like Fleming’s. (Patchett and Fleming became friends only after the novel was published.)

The book’s original working title was How to Fall in Love with Opera. However, her editor suggested changing the title because bookstores might place it in the "how to" section instead of where it belonged. The first version of the manuscript included a prologue written from Gen’s perspective, which introduced the story as a tale about how he met his wife. Patchett’s mentor, Elizabeth McCracken, advised her to remove the prologue, so Patchett deleted it.

Patchett has said she always wanted to write using an omniscient third-person narrator, a style she describes as "Anna Karenina-third." This style allows the narrator to move between characters in a room. Her first two novels were written in first-person perspective, and her third novel used third-person but only focused on one character’s thoughts. Patchett was happy when she successfully used the omniscient third-person style in Bel Canto, considering it a step forward in her writing development.

Reception

Sue MacGregor, a broadcaster and chairperson of the Orange Prize judges, praised the book, stating, "This is a well-written piece that combines kindness and danger in a remarkable way." Critic Alex Clark noted that Patchett's writing includes both sudden moments of violence and fear and long periods of boring, confined life. Many reviews mention that this book shows a different writing style compared to Patchett's earlier works and helped put her on the national stage.

Critic James Polk mostly praised the novel but pointed out that Patchett "tried too hard" to show the terrorists as more human, which he believed "reduced the story's balance between tension and uncertainty, making some scenes near the end sound almost like descriptions of a Boy Scout event." Other reviewers also criticized the slow story pace and characters that don't seem real, though some critics say these issues are part of Patchett's use of magic realism.

Bel Canto has been translated into more than 30 languages. According to Patchett, the book was planned to be made into a movie five or six times, a Broadway musical, and an opera by Aaron Jay Kernis, commissioned for the Santa Fe Opera's 2006 season. All of these plans did not happen until the opera was completed in 2015 and the film was released in 2018.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted into an opera with the same name. The opera was composed by Jimmy López and written by Nilo Cruz. It first performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on December 7, 2015.

A movie version of the novel, also with the same name, was directed by Paul Weitz. The film stars Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe. It was released in 2018.

In the seventh season of the television show Archer, a story called "Bel Panto" was used to parody Bel Canto. This two-part story involved guests at a charity event being taken hostage by clowns who wanted to steal a jeweled necklace from a wealthy actress.