Cry to Heaven
First edition cover
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| Author | Anne Rice |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction, Bildungsroman |
| Published | September 12, 1982 |
| Publisher | Knopf |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 533 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 8345254 |
Cry to Heaven is a novel by American author Anne Rice published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1982. Taking place in eighteenth-century Italy, it follows the paths of two unlikely collaborators: a Venetian noble and a maestro from Calabria, both trying to succeed in the world of the opera.
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. Although Guido becomes a star of the opera as a teenager, he loses his voice at eighteen, as many castrati did. After a failed suicide attempt, he becomes a music teacher in the Naples conservatorio. Tonio, on the other hand, learns that his older brother Carlo was exiled for embarrassing the family. Although Andrea attempts to cut Carlo out of the family, Carlo returns after Andrea's death, and plots to regain his original position. Revealing that Tonio is actually his illegitimate son, he has Tonio castrated, and sends him off with Guido to study in Naples.
Although 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. 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.
By the power of Tonio's almost inhuman soprano voice, Guido is roused from his depression, and takes him as a star student. Tonio progresses in his lessons extremely quickly. Guido also has Tonio perform some of his original compositions, which begin to impress audiences at the conservatorio.
Tonio, for his part, struggles to come to terms with his castrato status; in his own mind, he is "less than a man." At first, he finds it difficult even to associate with his fellow castrati. As time goes on, he has a love affair with another castrati boy, Domenico, and after Domenico leaves, with Guido himself. 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.
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