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I read the article about the making of “The Red Violin” with eagerness that quickly turned to confusion (“Truly Playing the Part,” by Ken Smith, June 6).
The movie was summarized as “the story . . . unfolds over 300 years and five centuries, tracing a 17th century violin from its creation in Cremona, Italy, through the hands of its players, owners and admirers to a present-day auction house in Montreal.”
Somewhere, I was looking for a reference and/or credit to “Antonietta” by John Hersey, published by Knopf in 1991, which chronicles the creation of a violin in Cremona, Italy, by the hands of Stradivari, and follows the instrument through the centuries, winding up at an auction house in Martha’s Vineyard in 1990.
The similarities between the works seem more than coincidence. The book and the movie have essentially the same plot. It seems that somewhere credit is due Hersey and his book.
JAY PELISSIER
Los Angeles
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