sar

waaaa thank u !! the other day i made an embarrassingly long post expanding on the synopsis a little bit. if there were any specific aspects of their characters or anything you wanted me to talk abt, let me know! i'm not sure what to say about it unprompted tbh LMAO........in a very general sense i will say it is very long which is why i will need to split it into two and right now i am working on the second draft 🙏 recently i decided the second book would be titled 'the primadonna'

also, i was inspired by vivaldi, who taught an all girl's orphanage how to play string instruments. hence why the setting is an all girl's music conservatory in italy hehe

omg HAHFDA 😭 well thank you for your interest! idk where to start....i'm afraid that summarizing or just talking about the book is incredibly difficult for some reason but i will try my best. i gave a very brief summary in the original post, so maybe i will expand on it a little

it's one book (that will likely need to split into two) that covers serafina + antonina's complicated relationship and careers over the course of 10~ years. (1956-1967) both women are very passionate and highly skilled opera singers with different but equally intense ambitions and motivations to succeed. and their devotion towards each other is really just an all-consuming and obsessive (especially on serafina’s side) mess

in the beginning, serafina is introduced as an isolated and intense perfectionist. when antonina gets the lead role in their school's production of carmen, serafina immediately fixates on antonina, trying to figure out why she was chosen for the role instead of her. that quickly devolves into her just being obsessed with antonina in general. and she realizes the hatred and jealousy she feels is actually more complicated. this is really just the beginning! another big aspect of her character is that she has a terrible relationship with her mother and thinks she can make her proud and earn her affection if she becomes a successful singer. she doesn't really grow to be a better person. she's delusional, obsessive, and only becomes more unstable as time goes on

as for antonina, she's a very kind girl from southern italy who came to milan on a whim, and started attending the same conservatory as serafina. she's very shy and "meek" (as serafina puts it). but even though serafina is cruel to her at first, antonina's still drawn to her. antonina is a bit of a mystery in the beginning, bc she is hiding parts of her past. but once serafina learns these things, she starts to understand her a lot better. her main motivation for success is to become independent and get her family out of poverty, especially since her father got involved in some things she wants him to get out of. antonina is a lot more grounded in reality than serafina is, and deals with a lot of difficult things serafina doesn’t, which creates conflict between them. over the years, antonina grows a backbone and learns to stand up for herself, but she ends up in a position where she has very little control, so it doesn't do much good

and their relationship as a whole, i will say that it remains really complicated through the entire story. there is genuine love and care between them. and despite being constantly torn apart from each other due to personal responsibilities, societal expectations and issues with their own identities, they keep coming back to each other. so, even though they hurt each other, i hope people will see why they are so devoted to each other. even when they aren’t on speaking terms, they still compare themselves to the other, measuring their own success based on the other’s. they truly can't live without each other.