(8) Chapter 4/2.

Lord Raymond shows what he will do for love of Lionel’s teenaged sister.

Crowns and royal duties aren’t for everyone, as history shows. Abdications of various sorts are fairly common. Mary Shelley means what happens in this chapter to be far from ordinary. To illustrate the beauty and the bigness of Lord Raymond’s particular grand gesture, I reach into the world of opera. The greatest singer I’ve ever been aware of was soprano Leontyne Price, shown here in 1980 at Lincoln Center’s (then) New York State Theater in a performance of the unexpected:

Marvin Hamlisch’s 1975 hit song, of course, is from Broadway’s A Chorus Line.

Click on the captions below for more about Leontyne Price:

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