"Nanette: An Aside" is a short story by Willa Cather. It was first published in Courier on 31 July 1897 and one month later in Home Monthly.Sheryl L. Meyering, A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories of Willa Cather, G.K. Hall & Co, 1995, p. 139
Plot summary As they are soon to leave America, Nanette tells Madame Traduttori she does not want to leave because she has fallen in love with Signor Luongo, who wants to marry her. He will not let her travel around the world, which she does with Madame. A little while later, Madame says she agrees to let her go on with her new life.
Characters Nanette, Madame Tradutorri's maid. Her mother was an opera singer with Madame Traduttori when they were both younger but she wasn't successful and died in a charity hospital. Madame Tradutorri, an opera singer. She is gnawed by her sadness. Her husband lives in Monte Carlo and her daughter is crippled and lives in a convent in Italy. Signor Luongo, a head waiter.
Allusions to other works Madame Traduttori is said to have performed Cavalleria rusticana. Maria Malibran is mentioned regarding Madame Traduttori's sadness. Madame Traduttori mentions the Capulets from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Literary significance and criticism Nanette: An Aside was later rewritten as A Singer's Romance,Willa Cather's Collected Short Fiction, University of Nebraska Press; Rev Ed edition, 1 Nov 1970, 'Introduction' by Mildred R. Bennett, page xxix though with a different stance.
It was the first instance of the opera singer in her fiction.James Leslie Woodress, Willa Cather - A Literary Life, University of Nebraska Press, 1989, p. 139 It was also partly based on Cather's life, as she had just written a letter to a friend about how marriage would force her to relinquish her art.Mildred Bennett,Early Stories of Willa Cather, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1957, p. 101
Footnotes
External links Full Edition at the Willa Cather Archive