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A wealthy Mexican traveler journeys to eighteenth-century Venice, where he meets Vivaldi, Handel and Scarlatti

Originally published in 1974, this novella was the first work Carpentier wrote after an 11-year respite, and it reflects his second career in musicology. Loaded with the kind of local color that requires many Spanish and Italian words to remain untranslated, the story is phantasmagorical in its representation of time: it begins with the master using a silver chamber pot in colonial Mexico and ends with his black servant tendering his ticket to a Louis Armstrong concert. The theme is reverse transculturation between the Old World and New; thus in his travels the protagonist finds Europe drab in comparison to the opulence of Mexico. For collections strong in Latin American fiction. Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md. Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information.

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An 18th century nameless Mexican nobleman and his Cuban servant, Filomeno, journey from the New World to the Old. In Venice, dazzled by and invigorated with the enchantment of the Christmas carnival, the pair encounters a trio of revelers who turn out to be the baroque composers Vivaldi, Handel and Scarlatti. The celebratory mood continues as the Mexican's tales of his homeland prompt Vivaldi to write and stage an opera based on Cortez's conquest of Montezuma. After the ridiculous performance, the confused master retreats to the security of Mexico, which seems to him more grounded in reality than the fantastical Venice, while Filomeno, bewitched by the city and especially by the music, remains. The late Cuban writer and musicologist Carpentier was a pioneer experimenter with the style of magic realism, which suffuses this story, from the overflowing, baroque sentences and the characters' languid, mysterious conversations to the purposeful blending of historical time periods. Also apparent throughout is a strong sense of irony. By creating a New World master who seeks adventure in the Old World, and a servant who is the book's most intelligent and articulate character, Carpentier reverses the expected order. This novella is a bizarre and compelling fantasy, a labyrinth-like journey laced with layers of allusions, insights and humor. (September) Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information.