A Roman Singer by Francis Marion Crawford

This is the story of a rather ugly boy with a great voice. While still non-famous he falls in love with a Count's daughter and pretends to be a professor to gain access to his lady love while tutoring.

One day, he goes on a "field trip " with Hedwig, her father and another man to the Roman ruins at midnight so Hedwig can see the full moon through the hole in the ampitheater ceiling. While there, in the darkness he gets the urge to sing and does so but no one can tell where the voice is coming from. Nino says it's his cousin who has now disappeared into the night.
Hedwig falls in love with the voice and keeps asking about his cousin...

Then the day of his debut arrives and Hedwig and her father are in the audience...

To cut a long story short, the Count refuses to allow his daughter to marry a phlebian musician and he takes his daughter away to an undisclosed castle location far in the mountains of Italy.

There's a villain, and a love story, a great escape and a subtheme of opera. Add to that, the dialog has fantastic wit which makes it a winner in my books. (see my status updates for examples) 

I took it down a star because I dislike someone else narrating the story. (in this case it was Nino's adoptive father). You miss so much with explanations of "how I know what happened ".

But its a good fairytale like story and I enjoyed it.

CONTENT: G