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{{Book Data
{{Book Data
|title= Maskerade
|title=Maskerade
|cover=
|cover=[[File:Cover Maskerade.jpg|thumb|240px|Cover art by Josh Kirby]]
[[File:Cover Maskerade.jpg|thumb|240px|Cover art by Josh Kirby]]
|coauthors=
|coauthors=
|illustrator=
|illustrator=
|date= November 1995
|date=November 1995
|publisher= Doubleday
|publisher=Doubleday
|isbn=0575058080
|isbn=0575058080
|pages=285
|pages=285
Line 23: Line 22:


So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's [[opera|entertainment]] with murders you can really hum)
So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's [[opera|entertainment]] with murders you can really hum)
==Plot==
3 months after the events of {{LL}}, [[Agnes Nitt]] travels from [[Lancre]] to [[Ankh Morpork]] to seek a singing career. [[Granny Weatherwax]] and [[Nanny Ogg]] follow her; they need to collect the money that a publisher owes Nanny from the sales of her cookbook. They also hope to persuade Agnes to join their coven to replace [[Magrat Garlick]], who left the coven when she became Queen of Lancre.
The [[Opera House]] is owned by [[Seldom Bucket]] and managed with assistance from the musical director [[Salzella]] and the chorus master [[Undershaft|Dr. Undershaft]]. It is also frequented by a masked [[Opera Ghost|"Ghost"]] who has often sent letters to the management reviewing performances and giving instructions. Lately, the Opera Ghost has also taken to committing murders and sabotaging performances. Agnes Nitt impresses the Undershaft with her powerful and versatile voice, so she joins the chorus. She meets [[Christine]], who is more popular and attractive but far less talented. The ghost wants Christine to take on the next lead role. However, as Agnes is a far better singer, she is asked to sing over Christine, unknown to Christine or the audience.
After obtaining Nanny's payment from the publishers, the witches arrive at the Opera House and begin investigating the actions of the Opera Ghost. Granny disguises herself as a wealthy audience member, while Nanny meets the staff. The Opera Ghost strikes again that evening when Undercroft is murdered and his body appears on display in the middle of performance. Agnes discovers that the caretaker [[Walter Plinge]] appears to be the Opera Ghost, but he appears to be harmless and the others are unconvinced. The pianist [[André]] is also suspected, but it turns out that he was only a spy for the [[City Watch]].
It is finally revealed that the Opera Ghost was actually being played two different people. Walter Plinge was the original Opera Ghost and that he was responsible for the harmless activities. Nanny also discovers that in the basement of the Opera House, Plinge has composed several operas and musicals of his own. On the other hand, the murders and sabotage that the Opera Ghost committed were committed by Salzella. He used this in order to distract people from his money laundering activities. With the witches' help, Plinge confronts Salzella and defeats him in a swordfight. Salzella dies after making an prolonged and melodramatic monologue about how much he hates opera.


==Characters==
==Characters==
* [[Agnes Nitt|Perdita]]
* [[Agnes Nitt|Perdita]]
* [[Christine]], a parody of {{wp|Christine_Daa%C3%A9|Christine Daae}}
* [[Christine]], a parody of {{wp|Christine_Daa%C3%A9|Christine Daae}}
Line 36: Line 43:
* [[Enrico Basilica]]
* [[Enrico Basilica]]
* [[Nanny Ogg]]
* [[Nanny Ogg]]
* [[Greebo]]
* [[Granny Weatherwax]]
* [[Granny Weatherwax]]
* [[André]]
* [[André]]
 
* The [[Librarian]]
==Things and Concepts==
* [[Death]]


==Locations==
==Locations==
Line 45: Line 53:
*[[Ankh-Morpork]]
*[[Ankh-Morpork]]
**The [[Opera House]]
**The [[Opera House]]
** [[The Shades ]]
*** [[Rosemary Palm|Mrs Palm's House]]


== Annotations ==
==Cover Artwork==
 
*In the touring exhibition '''''The Art of [[Josh Kirby]]''''', which at the time of writing was in the Walker Gallery in his home town of Liverpool, the full cover art of '''''Maskerade''''' is annotated with a direction to look out for the private jokes the artist built into his work. At least one member of the Opera House audience has realised he is being watched, and is looking not at the action on stage, but directly up at the artist who is drawing the scene... this is visible only on the cover of the hardback book: on the paperback, the relevant section is obscured by a highly inconvenient publisher's blurb.
* This book parodies {{wp|Phantom_of_the_opera|The Phantom of the Opera}}
 
p291, Corgi PB (British) ''The bowl of caviare flew out of his nervous fingers and caused a Fortean experience somewhere in the stalls.''


[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort|Charles Fort] was an American journalist who made a lifetime's study of weird and strange events, searching newspaper archives in both the USA and Great Britain for anomalous stories that could not easily be fitted into any known category.  He started out merely suspecting, but later came to believe, that contrary to what we are all continually told, science cannot explain ''everything'' that happens, and quite often, the scientific explanation for a strange event, when analysed, will be as full of holes as a Swiss cheese. One of the earliest newspaper clippings that confirmed his belief that weird, random, and seemingly impossible things happen, and the explanations advanced to explain them can often be less than convincing, is the one described as the ''Phantom Fishmonger of Cromer''.  
Btw, the original artworks for the covers are a '''''lot''''' bigger than the books and apparently are reduced down several times for publication. You would be surprised.


One day in 1897, the good folk of Cromer, Norfolk, were awoken by the steady patter and rattle of what felt like hail. To their consternation, a steady fall of whelks, mussels, prawns, crabs and some lobsters was apparently coming out of the sky, as the out-of-plaice seafood was rattling on roofs and falling from the roofs into the street.  
This was also the first Discworld Novel where the first editions cover followed the 'letterbox' format used for hardcover reprints of previous books. This only lasted until {{J}}.


As Cromer is a fishing port with a speciality in shellfish, the first explanation advanced by Authority was that a fishmonger had taken leave of his senses, and in a temporary madness had been running the streets of Cromer throwing his stock up onto peoples' roofs, with such intensity that many slates were broken and caused to fall. But nobody had seen this mad fishmonger, and in any case, the sheer volume of shellfish was too much for one man to carry. and as Fort pointed out, all the fishmongers of Cromer were hard-headed and very sane small businessmen, who would not have dreamt of disposing of valuable stock like this.  When an alternative was proposed, that a freak tornado might have begun out in the North Sea and passed inland, disgorging the sea life it had picked up as its intensity faded, this was laughed at as being utterly incredible... despite the fact East Anglia is England's answer to Tornado Alley in the USA. (British tornados are smaller, slighter, and more genteel)
The Unseen Library Edition of the book was the last in that format, but two editions were printed as the first printing was misspelled as Maskarade on the cover.


The term "Fortean Experience" has, since Cromer,  passed into the vocabulary largely to describe mysterious rains of fish from the heavens... mysterious rains of fish also occur in {{J}} and {{GO}}.
==Adaptations==
 
===[[Theatre Adaptations|Theatre]]===
==Cover Artwork==
Adapted by [[Stephen Briggs]] into a stage play in 1998.
 
*In the touring exhibition '''''The Art of [[Josh Kirby]]''''', which at the time of writing was in the Walker Gallery in his home town of Liverpool, the full cover art of '''''Maskerade''''' is annotated with a direction to look out for the private jokes the artist built into his work. At least one member of the Opera House audience has realised he is being watched, and is looking not at the action on stage, but directly up at the artist who is drawing the scene...  this is visible only on the cover of the hardback book: on the paperback, the relevant section is obscured by a highly inconvenient publisher's blurb.  


Btw, the original artworks for the covers are a '''''lot''''' bigger than the books and apparently are reduced down several times for publication. You would be surprised.  
==Gallery==
{|
|-
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! Letterbox.jpg|110px|thumb|First Edition Cover by [[Josh Kirby]]]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! Black.jpg|thumb|110px|Paperback 2004]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! Tape.jpg|thumb|120px|Audio Cassette]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! CD.jpg|thumb|140px|Audio CD]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! MS.jpg|thumb|110px|Cover by Michael Sabanosh]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! US.jpg|thumb|110px|US Cover]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! Zoom.jpg|thumb|120px|Paperback 2012]]
|}
{|
|-
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! Unseen.jpg|thumb|120px|Unseen Library Edition]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! Unseen2.jpg|thumb|180px|UL Edition and misspelled version]]
| valign="top" | [[File:M!!! CL.jpg|thumb|110px|Collectors Library Edition]]
|}


==External links==
==External Links==
[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/maskerade.html  ''Maskerade'' Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File]
[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/maskerade.html  ''Maskerade'' Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File]



Revision as of 07:44, 1 April 2021

Maskerade
Cover art by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date November 1995
ISBN 0575058080
Pages 285
RRP
Main characters Perdita, The Opera Ghost, Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax
Series Witches Series
Annotations View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork ... a huge, rambling building, where masked figures and hooded shadows do wicked deeds in the wings ... where dying the death on stage is a little bit more than just a metaphor ... where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by an evil mastermind in a hideously deformed evening dress ...

Where ... there's a couple of old ladies in pointy hats eating peanuts in the stalls and looking at the big chandelier and saying things like: 'There's an accident waiting to happen if ever I saw one'.

Yes ... Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, the Discworld's greatest witches, are back for an innocent night at the opera.

So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum)

Plot

3 months after the events of Lords and Ladies, Agnes Nitt travels from Lancre to Ankh Morpork to seek a singing career. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg follow her; they need to collect the money that a publisher owes Nanny from the sales of her cookbook. They also hope to persuade Agnes to join their coven to replace Magrat Garlick, who left the coven when she became Queen of Lancre.

The Opera House is owned by Seldom Bucket and managed with assistance from the musical director Salzella and the chorus master Dr. Undershaft. It is also frequented by a masked "Ghost" who has often sent letters to the management reviewing performances and giving instructions. Lately, the Opera Ghost has also taken to committing murders and sabotaging performances. Agnes Nitt impresses the Undershaft with her powerful and versatile voice, so she joins the chorus. She meets Christine, who is more popular and attractive but far less talented. The ghost wants Christine to take on the next lead role. However, as Agnes is a far better singer, she is asked to sing over Christine, unknown to Christine or the audience.

After obtaining Nanny's payment from the publishers, the witches arrive at the Opera House and begin investigating the actions of the Opera Ghost. Granny disguises herself as a wealthy audience member, while Nanny meets the staff. The Opera Ghost strikes again that evening when Undercroft is murdered and his body appears on display in the middle of performance. Agnes discovers that the caretaker Walter Plinge appears to be the Opera Ghost, but he appears to be harmless and the others are unconvinced. The pianist André is also suspected, but it turns out that he was only a spy for the City Watch.

It is finally revealed that the Opera Ghost was actually being played two different people. Walter Plinge was the original Opera Ghost and that he was responsible for the harmless activities. Nanny also discovers that in the basement of the Opera House, Plinge has composed several operas and musicals of his own. On the other hand, the murders and sabotage that the Opera Ghost committed were committed by Salzella. He used this in order to distract people from his money laundering activities. With the witches' help, Plinge confronts Salzella and defeats him in a swordfight. Salzella dies after making an prolonged and melodramatic monologue about how much he hates opera.

Characters

Locations

Cover Artwork

  • In the touring exhibition The Art of Josh Kirby, which at the time of writing was in the Walker Gallery in his home town of Liverpool, the full cover art of Maskerade is annotated with a direction to look out for the private jokes the artist built into his work. At least one member of the Opera House audience has realised he is being watched, and is looking not at the action on stage, but directly up at the artist who is drawing the scene... this is visible only on the cover of the hardback book: on the paperback, the relevant section is obscured by a highly inconvenient publisher's blurb.

Btw, the original artworks for the covers are a lot bigger than the books and apparently are reduced down several times for publication. You would be surprised.

This was also the first Discworld Novel where the first editions cover followed the 'letterbox' format used for hardcover reprints of previous books. This only lasted until Jingo.

The Unseen Library Edition of the book was the last in that format, but two editions were printed as the first printing was misspelled as Maskarade on the cover.

Adaptations

Theatre

Adapted by Stephen Briggs into a stage play in 1998.

Gallery

First Edition Cover by Josh Kirby
Paperback 2004
Audio Cassette
Audio CD
Cover by Michael Sabanosh
US Cover
Paperback 2012
Unseen Library Edition
UL Edition and misspelled version
Collectors Library Edition

External Links

Maskerade Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File


Previous book

Interesting Times

Discworld Series Next book

Feet of Clay

Previous book

Lords and Ladies

Witches Series Next book

Carpe Jugulum