The Passion! The Drama! The Death! Opera Mysteries

Like history? Like mysteries? Like opera? These books have plenty of all three. If you're not so sure about opera, read for the other stuff and you might come around. None of these books require expertise in opera or history, so if you just like figuring out whodunnit, there's that, too.

Lorenzo Da Ponte is Court Poet in the Austrian Empire, which means he spends a lot of time collaborating with his good buddy Mozart on operas. Da Ponte writes the words, and Wolfgang writes that devastating music. As Laura Lebow's Sent to the Devil opens, someone is murdering prominent Viennese while Da Ponte and Mozart are trying to adapt Don Giovanni for new singers and audiences. Da Ponte gets roped into the investigation, which takes a personal turn when one of his closest friends becomes a victim. Are the murders connected to a less-than-popular war? Sexual jealousy? Or is it more arcane than that? Lebow does a good job of depicting both the setting and the social mores of 18th century Vienna, and Da Ponte's observations of people, particularly singers, are often quite funny. Packed with plausible suspects, this mystery is compulsive reading for mystery and opera fans alike.

Benjamin January is a doctor, pianist, and free man of color in 1830s New Orleans. In Barbara Hambly's Die Upon A Kiss, he investigates the attacks on various members of an opera company that has come to town to perform Verdi's Otello. The story of doomed love between a black man and a white woman is provocative enough anywhere in America at the time, and especially in a racial powder keg like New Orleans, providing plenty of suspects. Hambly often uses the story to talk about the effect of slavery both on society and individual psyches, letting the reader make comparisons to the present day. Along with her social consciousness, her expertise in Crescent City history really makes this book shine. With twists and turns enough for any opera, this is another book that may keep you reading into the night.

If you like a lot of historical detail and accuracy in your novels, you might find Requiem in Vienna right up your alley. Alma Schindler hires lawyer Karl Werthen to investigate the ominous incidents that seem to beset her intended lover, composer and director Gustav Mahler. With the recent deaths of both Johannes Strauss and Johannes Brahms (and the lack of threats to Richard Wagner), someone seems to be killing off Vienna's musical geniuses. Once again, the drama is not keeping to the stage. Mahler and Wagner loathe each other; the soprano killed in one of the "accidents" was Mahler's lover, rumored to soon be replaced; and Werthen's own wife is expecting their first child. The plotting, crosses and double-crosses, and generally vicious politics of the opera house not only leave Werthen with a panoply of possible wrongdoers, but the reader much entertained. This is sophisticated entertainment for music lovers, mystery lovers, and history buffs.

There are plenty of other opera mysteries out there. Tell us about your favorites.