The new editions of the first two Tito Amato Mysteries are here! Though the official publication date is May 1, my copies of INTERRUPTED ARIA and PAINTED VEIL arrived today. The new cover art is beautiful, very in keeping with the lush, highly decorative sensibility of the baroque era (for a quick peek, go to my PPP book page and scroll down). With Tito re-embarking on his adventures, it seems a perfect time to address a question I'm often asked: who would I choose to play Tito Amato on film?
It would take a brave actor to play a castrato, but I think the role of Tito could be very rewarding. The eunuch singers with the fascinating vocal talents existed in a time and place where illusion, artifice, and vocal ambiguity were prized. They were a cultural phenomenon not likely to be repeated and difficult for our twenty-first-century minds to grasp. Angels to some and monsters to others, they entertained their contemporaries without being part of the prevailing social fabric. Most were subjected to surgery as young boys, then removed from family and community to train at music conservatories in Naples. The best singers found wealth and fame on the opera stage, but there were others whose throats failed and ended up in the back row of a country church choir. Either way, their lives could be lonely. While some castrati were capable of sexual activity as adults, the Catholic church forbade them to marry because they weren't able to procreate.
Tito faces these challenges with grace and wit–he even manages to marry a woman steeped in Italian witchcraft who has a way with virilizing herbs–but his journey is not without suffering. The actor who plays Tito would have to be willing to study the castrato phenomenon in all its complexity. And to understand Tito's great joy in making beautiful music, his tendency to bond with others who are marginalized by 18th-century society, his thirst for justice on their behalf, his sadness at never having children of his own, his never-ending curiosity.
Several readers have come up with interesting suggestions:
Ben Barnes
Ben Barnes is best known for playing Prince Caspian in the Narnia Chronicles and the title character in the film based on Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray–very disparate characters. I like his face. He's handsome without being pretty, and his dark eyes show deep emotion. So far, I haven't seen the fire in his performances that I would associate with Tito, but young Ben definitely has possibilities. He could grow into Tito.
Douglas Booth
Since Great Expectations was shown on PBS Masterpeice Classic, I've received several suggestions that Douglas Booth, who played their Pip, would make a good Tito. I don't know. As several wags remarked on Twitter and elsewhere: "When Pip is prettier than Estella, your Great Expectations may be in trouble." A quick internet check tells me that Booth has done as much modeling as acting, and I didn't find his Pip particularly deep. In their scenes together, his friend Herbert Pocket had the lion's share of my attention. I don't think Booth is ready for Tito.
Over the years, Tito's fans have put several other names forward:
Daniel Radcliffe–he's already had his signature role, folks.
Rufus Sewell–great actor, but too old, I'm afraid.
Gael Garcia Bernal–soulful eyes, but he's just not Tito.
Jude Law–hmm. Maybe.
I won't keep you in suspense. There's only one actor I see as Tito. He was my pick when I first started the series and he still is. He can do any role with sensitivity, charm, and style. He would breath life into the character I've created.
Johnny Depp, are you listening? Tito is ready for his close up.
Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow
Beverle Graves Myers, April 2012
