Sonata for a sister
The Italian Rita Charbonnier uses an arpeggio of words to compose a Requiem for Nannerl, Mozart’s forgotten sister. She too was a musical prodigy, and yet she had to give up her art. What could it have meant, for this woman, to live in her brother’s shadow? Worthy of a symphony, this literary debut has a harmonic and graceful narrative voice.
Q. Where did the desire to resuscitate Nannerl come from?
A. As a child, I played the piano. It was my older sister who initially told me about Mozart’s sister. Later I found out that Nannerl and Wolfgang Mozart performed together, as two child prodigies, in the courts of Europe. But when she reached adolescence she was curbed in her artistic élan, probably only because she was a woman. I wanted to tell of the pain of having a talent that cannot express itself. When I was working on the novel, I went in search of the real Nannerl: of her psychological evolution, her passions, her failures, and her struggle to build herself an identity.
Q. Is your book about a woman who is forced to make a great sacrifice?
A. It is not just the story of a talent that is repressed by circumstances. No one knows if Nannerl’s musicality was really equal to that of Wolfgang. My protagonist is also burdened by a self-destructive drive: at a crucial moment in the novel she burns the scores with her compositions written on them, and in this way destroys the best part of herself. She is a victim of her sex and her time, but we are all, for the most part, responsible for our own destiny. Nannerl constructs an armour around her heart. I think it is more interesting to tell about a soul battling with itself than just with destiny.
Q. What is special about Nannerl and Wolfgang’s relationship?
A. From the moment that her brother is born, Nannerl loves him unconditionally. Both children are gifted with a strong musical instinct. They support each other and their souls move in unison. Their relationship begins to deteriorate when Wolfgang leaves for Italy with Leopold, their father: the bond between father and son strengthens and in parallel that between brother and sister disintegrates. I refuse to believe that Nannerl is jealous of her brother. She loves music too deeply not to love Mozart’s and by saving the Maestro’s work from oblivion, she is finally reconciled with him, and with herself.
Kerenn Elkaїm in Le Vif/L’Express Weekend, Belgium, 23 June 2006
