The Instrumentalist
“The Instrumentalist is a marvel, a story rich in texture and detail.”
In 1704 Venice life is hard for poor working girls. And if they got pregnant, their options were painfully few. Born into this dire world is Anna Maria del Pieta, the daughter of a prostitute, barely older than a child herself.
Knowing the best chance for her daughter is the Pieta Orphanage, her mother must act quickly. Once your baby becomes too large to fit into the “donation box” they are left out on the street to die of exposure and starvation.
Anna Maria grows up inside the walls of the orphanage with her best friends Paulina and Agata, girls dropped at the orphanage on the same day.
In spite of the drab food and hard work, they are well cared for. And Anna Maria has one great joy in her otherwise nondescript life. There are music lessons for the girls, and she attends them weekly.
At eight her life is changed with the arrival of a new “maestro.” The young man, Antonio Vivaldi, recognizes there is something special about Anna Maria.
She is taken under his private tutelage and her talent and obsession grow. She learns sacrifice is necessary to become maestro and, on the day, her dear friend Agata dies, she realizes that to be remembered past one’s life, she must give everything for her music.
At 13 Anna Maria is admitted into the orphanage’s exclusive orchestra as the youngest member. At the same time, Maestro Vivaldi has encouraged her to compose her own music. They begin to secretly collaborate on music, but Vivaldi is given credit as composer.
This secret collaboration becomes untenable for Anna Mari; her ambitions have made her want more. When Vivaldi points out that all composers are men, Anna Maria shoots back, “And they are probably women’s ideas, squashed by the conceit of men . . . You have made us just clever enough to understand all that has been taken, all we cannot do.”
After a series of life-altering events, Anna Maria learns that this is a truth she must deal with. But, as she warns Vivaldi, someday his secret will come to light. “They will hear a about the girls with missing fingers, the sockets instead of eyes, the pox-marked skin and the ‘P’s’ burned into our arms. They will know that we were here, that this is what we achieved. This music is the glory of our lives. I can live with that.”
The Instrumentalist is a marvel, a story rich in texture and detail. Harriet Constable has taken a character and truly breathed life into her. Anna Maria is portrayed in fine detail. The story becomes mesmerizing as the colors and pictures of the music Anna Maria is experiencing are drawn in luminous detail.
Anna Maria del Pieta is a complex person, flawed, ambitious, and often selfish. But she is painted with such detail that the reader can overlook her imperfections. Music is her life. It is as if it is a force that she is unable to move against.
The story is filled with expertly researched details, some wonderful and many devastating about life in Venice at the time. Instances where the young girls are checked for menses in order to know when they can be married out of the orphanage highlight how little agency these orphans had over their own lives.
In spite of all the hardships and disappointments, Anna Maria’s story is one of triumph. While the triumph and notoriety she desired did not take place in the way she dreamed, she takes ownership of her story. She learns to embrace the hardship and regrets in order to forge the strength to determine the course of her own life and future.
It is a captivating story of a woman with dreams and hopes at a time when there was little for a poor orphan to hope for. Anna Maria is a protagonist you will not soon forget.