Dom and Sandro Ch. 01

At the end, we led the applause from our box, and the audience responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, rising to their feet and shouting. After the final curtain call, Ben and Leonora and Bastian and Arturo made their way to the rehearsal hall, where there was to be first-night party. Jon and I went to David's dressing room, where a dresser was removing his make-up. He then stood up, still wearing Edwardian mountaineering clothes from the last act, and embraced Jon and kissed him. I did the same to my sweet boy Luke, who was already there. When David had changed clothes, we went to the hall where the Prosecco was already flowing freely. Cornelio had not stinted on the refreshments. There was plenty of buffet food and endless supplies of booze, and it was clear that at the end of the party Trabizona's taxi service would be very busy. Luke introduced me to all the principals, and David did the same with Jon. Leonora was wildly enthusiastic about the opera, which she said was the first Italian 'Women's Lib' opera.

David did not go back to his hotel, he came home with us. As Jon was going home the next day, they wanted to sleep together. I got up early next morning and went out and bought the main newspapers. I knocked gently on their bedroom door and presented my naked 'fathers-in-law' with them. The critics were on the whole very enthusiastic about both opera and performance. When Luke got to work, rather later than usual, the Teatro Musicale box office phone was ringing continuously, and the opera was quickly sold out for the whole run of fifteen performances, spread over a month. David and Slatikova agreed to fit in three extra performances at the end of the run, both of them sacrificing the break between two lots of engagements. The final performance of the extended run was to be a gala performance, with very expensive tickets, to which the President of the Republic was to be invited. We want to extract the maximum amount of 'juice' from the production's success.

In David's case his next engagement was his last, and he had only taken it on for sentimental reasons. It was a revival of the production of several years before at Glyndebourne of La Clemenza di Tito, but this time Glyndebourne was taking the opera on tour. This was the opera that Luke had taken me to in the summer of our third year at Boni's, and it had been my first ever live opera performance.

Cornelio's big financial gamble had paid off. The Teatro Musicale was now reasonably secure. Cornelio said to Luke, "You played a significant role in the success of Anna Veronica, Luke, and you could use the credit from that to get a job elsewhere in Italy at more pay than you've been getting here, so I am going to give you a big pay rise to keep you here." Actually, it was not a massive pay rise, except in percentage terms. If you're paid a pittance, doubling your remuneration does not make you rich! But Luke wanted to stay with me in Trabizona, so he was very grateful for his new wage. I was in no position to move at that point in our lives.

A week after the first performance, when the money was still rolling in, we spent a Sunday celebrating Luke's birthday. As with all birthdays since we came together, we went out for a meal and spent a lot of time in bed having sex. We went to Bastian's gay restaurant, but drank rather less wine than usual, so as not to impair our performance when we got home!

Chapter XVIII Dom: Dom and Sandro get their degrees

It was great fun standing in for Jon when he was in Italy. Each day I drove Tommy to school and collected him from the Lewises' about 5 pm. He was now ten, and would at the end of the school year start at his new school, the junior department of Winton College School. He would then be old enough to go on the bus to school. Before then, he had to take an aptitude test, taken by all candidates for admission, mainly to ensure that parents were not wasting money sending a child with poor maturity and understanding to an academically high-powered school. He did very well in the tests, and it was clear from the results that he would be offered a place at WCS. Each term, his teacher was complimentary about his progress. His reading, which was slow when he came to live with us, rapidly got more and more fluent, because we read at least one story to him every night before he went to sleep. However, he was lightning fast at all kinds of sums and mental arithmetic. When Jon returned, I was busy with project work, much of which could fortunately be done at home and did not require me in the lab.

Early in March, Sandro and I took our B.A. degrees. Sandro had got a few days off from his work in Oxtedborough, and of course we had arranged for our parents to come to the degree ceremony. Although David and Jon would have loved to accommodate the two sets of parents at Rockwell's Barn, it seemed easier and more convenient for them to stay in hotels in Camford. We did however arrange a private room at the Sparrowhawk for a family party after the ceremony. I was still dining in college once or twice a week during term, but David still had his old B.A. gown, which he has happy to give to me for that purpose, so for the ceremony, we both hired robes. We ourselves as graduands were entertained for lunch by the college and we then walked in sub-fusc in our old scholar's gowns in informal procession from Boni's to the University Aula. There were only half a dozen of us from Boni's getting B.A. degrees (which were presented college by college), and when we were presented to the Vice-Chancellor holding hands in a long chain, I contrived to be next to Sandro so that I could hold his hand! After we had received our degrees, we were re-robed in our hired B.A. outfits and returned to the hall to be welcomed as graduates.

After the ceremony (which was entirely in Latin), and the routine photographs, the two sets of parents and Jon were joined by David and Tommy and we all went off to the Sparrowhawk for our parents to make one another's acquaintance. It had not been possible for the two sets of parents to meet before the ceremony. I introduced my parents first to David, Jon and Tommy, then Sandro and I introduced them to his parents. I personally have great difficulty in getting into conversation with people whom I have just met, but my father and mother are very experienced at talking to people, and Tommy helped enormously to ease any possible social tensions by running round happily and chatting to anyone he met, though we expected questions from him later about the Lord and Lady. He seemed to have no shyness about talking to adults. Dorothea seemed to take a particular fancy to her new nephew, and they conversed for a good while. Maybe she was regretting only having two children after she got married. Sandro and I then circulated, distributing glasses of Prosecco and chatting to each group as we did so.

The buffet was generous in both quality and quantity, and although there were plenty of seats and tables, both Sandro and I as the instigators of the occasion had to circulate as we ate. I noticed that Jon had made a special effort to talk to Massimo, who with his limited English was floundering a bit, so Jon was polishing up his rather rusty Italian. He had not spoken it regularly since Sandro had moved into college after his first three months in Camford. To some extent, I felt the same as Massimo as my Italian is non-existent. Lack of Italian did not seem to worry Tommy though, he talked to all and sundry.

After we had finished eating, Sandro stood up to give a short speech. He gave it twice, once in English and once in Italian. He said: "I want to welcome you here on behalf of David and Jonathan, who very kindly arranged this party, but devolved the talking to me! This is a happy occasion for two reasons. Firstly we are celebrating the attainment of Dom and myself of the Bachelor's degree, and we want you to share our satisfaction at the outcome of three years of study in Camford. Of course if all goes well, we will each have a higher degree to celebrate in a year or two's time. But secondly, and this will come as a surprise to all of you, Dom and I are celebrating our engagement!

"Yes, a couple of days ago, rather unromantically, we agreed over the telephone that we will become partners for life when we have both got established in our respective careers, which may take a few years. And yesterday we went to a long-established jeweller's in Camford and purchased a matching pair of what I believe are called 'mangagement' rings, which we are now going to put on!" He beckoned to me to join him, and we each pulled a box out of our pockets, removed the ring from the box and put the ring on the fourth digit of the other's right hand, after which we kissed one another to a loud burst of rather surprised applause.

Sandro then repeated his speech in Italian. He then added, "So we both hope that in a few years time, you will all be able to join us when we finally tie the knot. That will take place in the chapel at Dom's ancestral home at Getheringthwaite and we look forward to seeing you there!" Of course everyone wanted to see the rings, which were not identical. They were like David and Jon's rings, gold bands each set with four small jewels, rubies in my case, sapphires in Sandro's. We would wear them on our right hands until the ceremony, when they would be moved to the left hand. Of course this led to a protracted period of congratulations, kisses and handshakes, and by the time that the excitement had died down, coffee was served. We had taken the trouble to explain carefully to Tommy beforehand what two men getting engaged meant, so that he didn't get upset or puzzled. We also asked him not to talk about it at school. Although everyone present except Tommy had known my identity, and we were not proposing to put our engagement in the newspapers or the internet, I wondered how long it would be before my identity became public in Camford. We had hoped to keep my identity secret until we became civil partners.

Chapter XIX Dom: Easter in Herefordshire and summer at Ixton

Soon it was the Easter holidays. I had only a short break less than Tommy's school holidays, but by now David had finished his final stage appearance in the Glydebourne company's tour of La Clemenza di Tito, and would soon be back in Camford for good. His classes in the Netherlands would come to an end in June. Three of his best pupils there had got funding to transfer their studies to the Royal College of Music, with an arrangement for them to have weekly lessons with David in Camford or sometimes in London. It was not practicable to enrol them in the University, but David had secured the use of Marcello Fabioni's old teaching room in the music department. Poor old Marcello was dying, and David visited him twice a week. Marcello was very happy that David was going to be his successor. In spite of his international reputation, David would never be the big wheel in the international singing world that Marcello had been, but he was a worthy successor in teaching Camford students.

David, Jon, myself, Sandro (who had negotiated a week's break over Easter) and Tommy spent Easter in an hotel in Herefordshire, visiting daily one or more of Jon's woodland plantations in the area of Eastern Wales and the Welsh border. The regular Easter visit to Jon's aged mother in Nice was postponed until July. Tommy had not spent much time, if any, in the countryside before, and he loved exploring the Afforestation Trust's woodlands. We had arranged for a small single bed for him in David and Jon's hotel room. He was not at all keen on being alone in an hotel room. He proved to be an excellent walker for his age, and the daily picnic lunch was a big thrill for him. We were lucky with the weather, which because Easter was late that year, was warmer than usual.

On Easter Day, David and Jon took Tommy with them and drove to Tokenham, where there was an Easter Day service at the collegiate church conducted by one of the canons, and we all went back there on Easter Monday evening to hear David's choir sing Bach's Easter Oratorio. To our surprise, Tommy was quite keen on listening to singing. We thought that he would be bored, but he loved every minute of it, even though he slept in the car all the way back to the hotel. Another day, we took him for a meal at a gourmet restaurant in Ludlow and again to our amazement he loved the exotic food and ate everything put in front of him. He had an enormous appetite! It was clear that puberty had set in, and the spurt of growth that begins about that age in adolescent boys had started, and needed to be fuelled by food. We warned Jon that it was time to talk to the boy about sex and growing up.

The wonderful week was soon over, Sandro returned to his digs in Oxtedborough, and I was back in the department, where we were still having lectures, even during the vacation. Our course lasted a calendar year, with the dissertation and assessment taking place at the beginning of October. As I could no longer go swimming with Sandro, I used to take Tommy swimming one day after school, and on weekends when Sandro was at home, we all used the pool at Rockwell's Barn on the Saturday. Tommy was now an excellent swimmer.

The Pentecost term began and then the summer followed. There were, at the weekends, a few trips up the Camwell by punt, and we taught Tommy how to propel a punt. During my Master's year, I only dined in college on Sundays and usually sat with Jennifer and her boyfriend Charlie, unless Sandro was home for the weekend, when Tommy was left with the Lewises and the two of us would dine in college. David and Jon would dine on High Table the same evening. Such evenings were quite convivial, and the four of us would collect a sleepy pyjama-clad Tommy by taxi before returning to Fountain Street, where he would be put into his bed.

In July, David came home for good. The house in Heemstede was put up for rental. He was still going to continue his radio broadcasts for the Dutch public radio. These could be prerecorded at the NOS studio in London. If they wanted him to appear on Pauw en Wittemann he would fly to Schiphol in the morning and return the next day. He got to know the hotels in Hilversum very well. After Tommy had finished at school, and had moved with his fathers to Rockwell's Barn, leaving me alone in Fountain Street, David spent a lot of time with his new son, basically trying to get to know him. Tommy said that he had never met a professional singer before, and often asked David to accompany himself on the piano and sing something nice. One day, David asked Tommy if he would sing something, and gave him the words of the folksong Early one morning. He sang it nicely, and in tune. Clearly his voice had not yet broken. He said to David, "Can I learn to play the piano, please?" David was amazed. Most kids are pushed into piano lessons by their parents.

Having established that Tommy was really keen and it was not a passing whim, David telephoned Brian Shaw, his old accompanist, now retired, and asked if he could recommend a piano teacher for a boy of nearly eleven. Brian said "How about Stephen Kennedy?" Stephen had accompanied David on a number of occasions since Brian's retirement. "I know he's a good teacher of children, and he is not massively expensive." David rang Steve Kennedy the next day, and he was invited to bring Tommy along the next day for an audition. He passed easily, and piano lessons began at once. It was made clear to Tommy that the lessons would be every week both during term and the school holidays, though he would get a week off at Christmas, Easter and each half-term. To our a amazement, he loved the lessons and practised for at least a half-hour every day on the grand piano at Rockwell's Barn.

Chapter XX Sandro: Old lives approach their end

Soon after this, we took Tommy to Nice to meet his other new grandmother, Mrs Singleton, who had been amazingly generous to Cathy, Luke and Tom. She was getting increasingly less active, as she was now well into her eighties. But she was still very lively in her mind. She was delighted to meet her new grandson. We had warned him that his reception might be a bit strange, but she kissed him and talked to him for half-an-hour. After he had gone to bed, she told us how glad she was to get rid of some more money before the taxman got his hands on what was left. She said that she would see her lawyer the next day and arrange for Tim Ingledown to set up a trust for Tommy, from which he would be able to draw an income when he was eighteen. €100K would be deposited in this trust fund, with instructions to Tim to invest it very carefully. There might, she said, be bit more money for the boy after her death. Of course we did not tell Tommy that his financial future was assured, but it was nice to see the old lady so charmed by the boy who had won all our hearts. Jon and David told us about how, in the face of their disapproval, Luke and Tom had entertained her by skinny dipping in her neighbours' pool. Rather taken by the idea, Dom and I asked her if she would like us to so the same. Smiling sadly, she replied that she was now too old even to be enlivened by watching the antics of two naked young men. We all felt that she would not live much longer.

At the end of August, Marcello Fabioni died. He was 89. David had visited him twice per week during his illness, so it came as no surprise, and his daughter had flown in from Italy and was with him at the end. Marcello had been the most important person in David's life after his parents and Jon, and David was very upset. He had promised Marcello that he would take charge of the funeral arrangements, and this occupied him solidly for a week. In some ways, Caterina was less affected by his death than his daughter or David, but it was a sad time. There was a requiem mass in Camford's Roman Catholic church, at which David read the epistle. After the interment in Quichley Road cemetery, there was a short reception in the Sparrowhawk pub, arranged by the undertakers. Both Luke and Tom had come for the funeral, and Pauline van Houtenstok had come with them.

David started arrangements for a big memorial service in the Brompton Oratory in London to be held in a few months time. Marcello would have hated this, but he was such a great and well-loved figure in the European musical world, that David felt it essential to give people the chance to pay him tribute. Westminster Cathedral had been suggested, but this struck David as too pretentious. Both Jon and Tommy noticed how sad David became and both went out of their way to console him, in Jon's case of course in their bed! During this sad time, Dom had just begun writing his Masters dissertation. He knew now that he wanted to work on some high level developments, not web design or computer games, but really advanced stuff.

In September, David had the additional job of executing Marcello's will. Although he had agreed when Marcello had asked him, it came as a surprise to find that Marcello had left him all his music, documents and correspondence, with the proviso that they should be offered to the Watsonian Library. David consulted the head of the university Music department, who agreed to set up a meeting with Watson's Librarian and the music experts of the library. The whole business dragged on for several months, but eventually the library accepted the donation, except for some of the sheet music, which David was glad to keep. Most of the rest of Marcello's estate went to Caterina, with £10K to each of his grandchildren. Jon and David felt that an era had come to an end with Marcello's death.

Chapter XXI Sandro: Dom and Sandro move north