Enamel Eyes, a Fantasia on Paris, 1870

Enriching lyric poetry with the psychology and dramatic sweep of a historical novel, Jay Rogoff s "Enamel Eyes, A Fantasia on Paris, 1870," imagines the terrible year, when war and siege transformed the City of Lights. The events wonder and horror emerge through the struggles of both famous and ordinary Parisians: Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie; great painters, including Degas, Manet, Bonheur, and Monet; and especially the real-life creators and fictional characters of the ballet Coppelia, which dazzled Paris mere weeks before the Franco-Prussian War erupted. Dancing the role of Swanilda, the clever village girl who defeats her mechanical rival, the automaton Coppelia, sixteen-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi became the toast of Paris, until war and its mechanized destruction changed the city and her life forever."