Marco Antonio, or Tonio, is the last son of the Treschi - a very powerful, influential, and ancient noble Venetian family. His childhood was spent mostly in the palazzo of Andrea Treschi - an old man but member of the Venetian Grand Council and head of their family - together with his young mother. All his life he thought his brothers were dead in wars that the once-powerful Venetian State fought hard to secure its empire, until the day his father allowed him to join the festivities of the city. There, whispers of a fourth brother reached his innocent ears. But the one that resounded most in him was the rumor of his resemblance to the one they called Carlo, exiled to Istanbul by Andrea. Due to his youth, Tonio did not comprehend the complexity of his family. He spent most of his time singing, for it was his passion.
In a society where the castrato sang in the opera and theaters, Tonio surprised everyone with his beautiful voice, one attributed only to the eunuch singers of his time. Allowed to wander the streets, he sang until the wee hours of the morning, mostly after cavorting with a lowly servant maid.
His father died soon after, and his death moved the wheels of Tonio’s destiny. Carlo, upon hearing the news, returned to Venice where he fought hard against his father’s last will. It was revealed that their likeness was in fact due to Carlo’s paternity to Tonio. The boy, however, refused to accept this revelation and avoided him. He still spent most of his time singing. This gave Carlo a foul idea.
At the age of fifteen, Tonio was forcefully castrated and entrusted to Guido.
Guido was a castrato from a conservatorio in Naples. He was traveling all over Italy to search for a voice that would inspire him to write his masterpiece. Guido was once a promising opera singer bound for Rome, if not for the day that his voice left him. Instead he became a cruel and hard maestro to the students of the conservatorio, making miracles out of hopelessness. His students both shunned and thanked him. Guido brought Tonio back to the conservatorio, together with the two boys he had picked along the way to Venice, one of them was named Paolo.
It took time for Tonio to accept his fate, but his experience at the slopes of Vesuvius changed his life. He resigned to the fact that he was forever bound to the life at the opera.
Besides his lessons with the voice which immediately awed all his peers and mentors, Tonio killed Lorenzo, a eunuch at the conservatorio, a rash youth who couldn’t have made it even with the guidance of Guido. Tonio became the lover of another eunuch, whose femininity aroused the lust in him, but whom he could never and did not love. When he left, Guido and Tonio discovered their passion for each other, and their relationship transcended that of student and teacher. Their nights were filled with their all-consuming passion for each other.
Tonio agreed to everything Guido asked him to perform, except to play the part of a female. They would argue about this endlessly. But one night, he was maneuvered by Guido and the Countess into performing for a large audience at her palazzo. Everyone knew then that he was ready to sing outside the confines of the conservatorio. He was ready for Rome.
Their host in Rome was the brother of the Countess, a Cardinal – a prince of the Church. Reluctantly, he left his view of mighty Vesuvius and brought Paolo with him, together with his maestro, Guido.
In Rome, he was known as Tonio Treschi, refusing to be called by another. This was his first opera, and Guido chose for a her a female role which at first he resisted but eventually accepted as the time drew near. It was past Christmas and before the New Year when they performed. Despite the fact that the opera was interrupted several times by the supporters of the soprano that would take the male lead, Tonio got out of it triumphant, having sang the song in the stillness of voices after much ruckus from the audience.
And in Rome, he became the lover of the Cardinal, and the object of lust of the count Rafaelle di Steffano, and numerous Roman men he had picked up in the most unlikely place in the ancient city. And once the Cardinal refused him, Tonio once again became Guido’s lover. However, Tonio also became the lover of the famous but young painter, the Englishwoman Christina, wife of the Countess’ dead cousin, whom he had been seeing but had never known in Naples.
And then came news of the death of his mother. This was what he was waiting for. He was ready for revenge. Everyone dissuaded for him to continue, or at least let others kill his father-brother for him, but he cannot be budged from his decision.
After their sensational season in Rome, they were asked to perform in Florence. The opera went ahead, even Christina, but Tonio came back to Venice, to the Piazza San Marco where Carlo had been drinking and cavorting women. Disguised, he lured his father-brother to an abandoned house, and bound him. Whereupon Tonio eventually released him, but Carlo didn’t apologize for his doings, as Tonio’s original plan was. Carlo thrust a knife towards him. But Tonio, having learned and mastered fencing, released the stiletto that he always carried with him. In the end, he left the now-cold corpse of his father-brother.
Twelve days before Lent, he set on foot for Florence, after ending the torment that lived with him.
Discourse
I am not a fan of Anne Rice, I only picked up the book because the first few pages interested me. Guido, castrated at a very young age, is a very interesting introduction.
Paolo, a mere ten-year old boy, grew attached to Tonio from the very first days that they have known each other. The scene where they were inside the carriage bound for Naples, Paolo - cuddled and nestled against Tonio - the level of intimacy at that point was beyond physical: Paolo was the ultimate manifestation of the innocence and childhood of Tonio. The boy’s fear, agitation, restlessness and youthful exuberance was the be- all and end-all of the pre-castration Tonio Treschi.
The author was explicit about the duality of Tonio’s disposition: on one hand was the happy one, satisfied with a life of music; on the other was the soul tormented by the lust for revenge. Tonio was happy singing, and even surrendered himself to play a woman’s role. And this happiness dimmed the other side of him. It eventually came, out of fear of being drowned by the happiness. And his mother’s death was the catalyst.
Tonio playing the female role was the greatest challenge of his career. Since actual female singers where at that time banned from performing onstage, naturally the castrato replaced them. They became androgynous, once they wore that dress of their female part. They were beautiful, and they fooled a lot of men, just like what happened between Guido and Tonio. Dressed as a man, people would know that he is a castrato singer, a male, and would naturally listen to him. But as a woman, people would have to break the illusion of what they are seeing is not a woman but a man disguised as a woman. For Guido, this was the truest test of Tonio’s power. And he did. He did enthrall everyone inside that theater where he first appeared. And Guido knew that Tonio, who emanated this power, held them well and they basked in his glory.
The Cardinal learned the secrets of the flesh when he and Tonio shared that first night. But the Cardinal was racked by guilt, for him Tonio was evil. But for Tonio it was love, for what is sin without guilt? The discourse her would be lengthy but I choose to end it here. Only, I can relate.
Count Rafaelle di Steffano, we would learn eventually would be his lover also, but would be his defender and protector.
(to be continued)
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