Cry to Heaven
by Anne Rice
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anne RiceEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-04-01
ISBN: 0345396936
Number of pages: 576
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Cry to Heaven
Book Review: Addendum to Other Reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
The reviews of others, e.g., Chicago Dreamer and Fisher, are accurate, useful, and elegantly written; so I'll add only a few more thoughts. I avoided Rice and her vampire books mistakenly thinking that she was only a pulp/pop-fiction writer. When I read "Cry to Heaven," I was pleasantly surprised, even astonished. She obviously is intelligent, talented, and professional. My being an avid reader and member of a great-books discussion group for many years, I was impressed with her style and skill. Her detailed research into the era, locales, and the world of castrati was admirable. My having worked as a therapist for many years, I was profoundly touched by the insight and sensitivity with which Ann explored the thoughts and feelings of Tonio. My having been a life-long lover of serious music and also a researcher and lecturer into the subject of Baroque music and the castrati, I was impressed with her accuracy and understanding of this amazing phenomenon.
"Cry to Heaven" would make a unique and wonderful movie, but only if it were to be made very well, perhaps as a "labor of love" as was Visconti's "Death in Venice" and with an appropriate budget, time, and effort similar to Peter Jackson's, albeit longer, "Lord of the Ring" triology. Of course, there would be several difficulties to overcome.
First, Tonio grows from childhood into young adulthood, requiring perhaps three look-alike actors of special beauty, as described by Ann, and with convincing acting ability.
Second, the superlative castrato voice would have to be created most likely by using 21st-century technology (which would take time but should not be overly difficult) to cover the wide alto-to-soprano range plus the vocal strength suitable for the opera stage. Very importantly, the uninformed mistakes of the "Farinelli" producers would have to be avoided, i.e., using an average, female soprano with distinctly female timbre, breathiness, and technical imprecision along with an average countertenor with similar problems. For the alto range, superlative countertenor Andreas Scholl has the talent, experience, power, and voi-blanc sound required to approximate the castrato voice. Unfortunately, the perfect female soprano Gundula Janowitz no longer sings, but there may be one or two now available who have voices far superior to the one used in the 1994 "Farinelli." Also, natural male sopranos such as Jorge Cano or Radu Marian might be used. Then these voices could be electronically blended to form a consistent, ideal voice.
Third, the sex scenes in Ann's novel are not gratuitous and do explore the natural drives and emotional confusion of the castrati. They should not be avoided in a movie version and can be filmed tastefully so that they would not be offensive to anyone other than those persons who are horrified by sex and prefer to deny human nature.
Perhaps a dedicated film maker such as Visconti or Jackson will have the courage, support, and budget to make a quality film version of Ann's book. In the meantime, this book should be a must-read for anyone who is interested in the subject and also is looking for a good, dramatic tale.
Summary of Cry to Heaven
In this mesmerizing novel, the acclaimed author of THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES and the LIVES OF THE MAYFAIR WITCHES makes real for us the exquisite and otherworldly society of the eighteenth-century castrati, the delicate and alluring male sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe, men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half-men.As we are drawn into their dark and luminous story, as the crowds of Venetians, Neopolitans, and Romans, noblemen and peasants, musicians, prelates, princes, saints, and intriguers swirl around them, Anne Rice brings us into the sweep of eighteenth-century Italian life, into the decadence beneath the shimmering surface of Venice, the wild frivolity of Naples, and the magnetic terror of its shadow, Vesuvius. It is a novel that only Anne Rice could have written, taking us into a heartbreaking and enchanting moment in history, a time of great ambition and great suffering--a tale that challenges our deepest images of the masculine and the feminine.
"To read Anne Rice is to become giddy as if spinning through the mind of time."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"Dazzling in its darkness...Spellbinding."
--The New York Times
The acclaimed author of Servant of the Bones makes real for us the exquisite and otherworldly society of the eighteenth-century castrati, the delicate and alluring male sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe, men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half men.
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