He comes to dominate the conservatorio-in addition to being a star student, he soon befriends all the boys his age, and becomes something of a leader and confidant. As time goes on, he has a love affair with another castrato boy, Domenico, and after Domenico leaves, with Guido himself. At first, he finds it difficult even to associate with his fellow castrati. Tonio, for his part, struggles to come to terms with his castrato status in his own mind, he is 'less than a man'. Guido also has Tonio perform some of his original compositions, which begin to impress audiences at the conservatorio. Tonio progresses in his lessons extremely quickly. After some soul-searching, he decides to remain in Naples and study under Guido, holding off on revenge until after Carlo and his mother (also Carlo's lover and later wife) have children to ensure the family line.īy the power of Tonio's almost inhuman soprano voice, Guido is roused from his depression, and takes him as a star student. Revealing that Tonio is actually his illegitimate son, he has Tonio castrated, and sends him off with Guido to study in Naples.Īlthough everyone in Venice is inclined to believe that Carlo was behind his castration, Tonio cannot accuse him of the crime because doing so would result in the extinction of the Treschi family. Although Andrea attempts to cut Carlo out of the family, Carlo returns after Andrea's death, and plots to regain his original position. Tonio, on the other hand, learns that his older brother Carlo was exiled for embarrassing the family. After a suicide attempt, he becomes a music teacher in the Naples conservatorio. Although Guido becomes a star of the opera as a teenager, he loses his voice at eighteen, as many castrati did. Set in eighteenth-century Italy, Cry to Heaven focuses on two characters, peasant-born Guido Maffeo, who is castrated at the age of six to preserve his soprano voice, and fifteen-year-old Tonio Treschi, the last son of a noble family from the Republic of Venice, whose father, Andrea, is a member of the Council of Three of La Serenissima.

Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice