Poinsettia Girl

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Venice 1710</strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)><em>Poinsettia Girl</em> is based on the story of Agata de la Pieta an orphan musician of the Ospedale de la Pieta.</strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Ten-year-old Agata's world is shaken at the sudden death of her mother. Left only with her egregious father a working musician in Venice her ailing grandmother sends her to the well-known orphanage hidden from everything she's ever known.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Agata auditions for the conservatory style music school where music is both salvation and spectacle. Hidden behind ornate metal grates adorned with poinsettias in their hair the singers are veiled in mystery their ethereal music drawing noble audiences including gilded young men who see them as treasures-not only for their sound but as coveted marriage prizes.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Just as she reaches the height of her musical journey a marriage proposal from someone outside the audience tempts her with the promise of a new life-a return to the old neighborhood she's longed for and a home she barely remembers. Torn between the music that has defined her and the hope of belonging to a family Agata must confront the most profound question of her life: is her purpose rooted in the music that shaped her or in the love that might free her?</span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>