The black opera

An acquaintance described this book, in analogy with “horse opera” and “space opera” as “opera opera”, and that's a pretty good description. Conrad Scalese is strong-armed into writing the libretto of an opera under an impossibly tight deadline, working with a composer he has reason to hate (and not just because Conrad is the librettist and Roberto is the composer, which is usually sufficient...)

Volcanoes, secret societies, Napoleonic politics, personal intrigue, betrayal, lust, love, hatred... opera at it's best.

I found the style a tad flat and the plot verging on over-dense, but those are decidedly personal preferences. The long climax is extremely well-paced and the ultimate resolution operatically satisfying.