Posted by If ever there was a book story that made you pause and think, “Damn.”
Hey, Book Friends, I was recently scrolling TikTok and came across a video about the life of Alessandro Moreschi, an Italian chorister who was the last known castrato. A castrato, or castrati plural, was a male singer in previous centuries who was castrated before puberty to prevent their voice from changing/deepening. It was an attempt to preserve high-sounding voices for operatic performances.
Fellow TikTok users commented on the video with one user writing, “The book ‘Cry to Heaven’ by Anne Rice tells this story.”
It was terrifying.
“Cry to Heaven,” a historical fiction novel written in 1982 and based in eighteenth-century Italy, tells the story of Tonio Treschi, the son of a wealthy and well-connected Venetian man, Andrea Treschi. In a twist befitting a novella, Tonio learns his father is actually his grandfather, and the man he knew as his brother, Carlo, is his biological father.
Andrea describes Carlo as a drunk. His father exiled him for embarrassing the family by chasing after a woman the family did not select for him. He, Carlo, comes back after Andrea’s death and tells Tonio the truth about who his father is. Carlo takes his place in the family line, has Tonio castrated, and sends him to a conservatory in Naples.
Although reluctant at first, Tonio eventually excels at his opera studies but struggles with being a castrati. He sees himself as a monster, “less than a man.”
The book ends with vengeance being served and Tonio accepting his new life as a premier opera singer. I, however, couldn’t shake the idea of parents giving up their children for any potential success it may bring. I thought of Alessandro Moreschi and the fictional character Tonio Treschi and how their lives were forever changed because of entertainment and the horrors they endured.
It also made me think of “Quiet on Set,” the docuseries covering the behind-the-scenes world of children’s television. I considered the pain several child actors went through because, of course, the “show must go on.”
Like Moreschi and Treschi, many child actors had no choice in their careers, much less the bad times often covered up with the good times.
Even though these stories are centuries apart, I couldn’t help but see a connection. Being sent off to a conservatory and mutilated for the opera stage or sent to Hollywood for TV screens, there are no words.
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The title of Rice’s novel, “Cry to Heaven,” takes on an eerie feel when listening to Alessandro Moreschi’s recordings. Before he died in 1922, he recorded several songs for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company (an early recording company). Someone on social media commented his high-pitched voice sounded like he was in a state of pain, almost like he was actually crying to heaven.
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