Whispers of Vivaldi

Venice, 1745, is an age of reckless pleasures, playful artifice, and baroque excess. An accident has reduced Tito Amato's glorious singing voice to a husky croak. But now the male soprano is determined to prove himself as a director. As the Teatro San Marco is losing subscribers to a rival company, the theater's Maestro Torani charges Tito with locating the perfect opera to fill the seats in time for Carnival.

Surprisingly, a second-rate composer provides the very thing—an opera so replete w...