The Uncle from Rome

About this book

An American opera singer travels to Naples and becomes embroiled in his strangest role yet. Michael Ruane is an obscure American opera singer who arrives in Naples to play a small part in an important production of Tosca and star in his own staging of a little-known Benjamin Britten opera. The work comes at a particularly trying time when hes still raw with grief after his New York lovers death from AIDS. As the productions get under way Ruane is offered an unusual part: That of the "uncle from Rome" at a local wedding. According to tradition the presence of the uncle from Rome at important events confers prestige on the family. However Ruane is soon enmeshed in a drama that surpasses any role he has played on the stage. The Uncle from Rome is a brilliant and colorfully imagined novel filled with theatrics of operatic proportions.