The Spear Carrier

Among shadows, an unidentified opera singer prepares for a performance. The scene shifts to Philadelphia in 1959. Youngster Tito Bernardi is instilled with a love for opera by his mother, Maria. Years later, while 17-year-old Tito acts as a one-time extra for a traveling opera troupe, Maria falls down their stairs and dies. When Tito suspects the brutish father Pietro has really killed her, a fist fight breaks out. Pietro lands awkwardly on a piece of furniture. Tito’s younger sister Anna examines him and informs her brother that Pietro is dead. Tito is forced to leave immediately. He tracks down the traveling opera troupe before they leave the train station and manages to hook up with them as a stage hand.

Over the years, Tito comes of age, helped along by various members of the opera troupe, including stage manager Goodard, the founder of the company, Carter Newman, a sexy cellist named Renata, and Robert Dill, a baritone exiled from the New York Metropolitan Opera.

The troupe goes through its ups and downs, punctuated by classic operatic disasters and faux pas, sexual episodes, as well as some fine singing.

Tito’s role in the company expands when he becomes a member of the chorus. By accident, temperamental conductor Wurtzman discovers Tito has a gifted voice, a tenor with great potential. He works with Tito to develop his vocal technique.

Tito suffers an embarrassing singing debut, after smoking pot for the first time, but his friends help him gain confidence in his voice. Eventually, he sings the lead tenor roles for the troupe.

A more mature Tito gets up the nerve to investigate his old neighborhood in Philadelphia, hoping to re-connect with his sister Anna. But, the community has undergone massive change throughout the years. He’s unable to find any trace of Anna.

Ultimately, an older Tito establishes himself as a major opera star, singing at all the major opera houses in the world, including the New York Metropolitan Opera.

He has a reunion with cellist Renata, when she joins the Met orchestra. The two decide to attend a nearby performance by their former opera troupe, for old times.

By now, the troupe is in bad shape money-wise, hangs on by a thread, and closure threatens. Amid another operatic fiasco and a drunk tenor, Tito volunteers to sing the final act, which is a huge triumph.

Tito decides to pay back the opera troupe for his success and pledges to sing with them for free, until they recover financially.

While rehearsing with conductor Wurtzman, he meets newly-signed Gina Palumbo. She is not only a great singer, but beautiful as well. Tito is smitten.

After a tremendous opening night, Wurtzman has a heart attack and dies, passing on his baton to his long-time first violinist, George Waller.

Tito and Gina continue singing for the troupe. After a successful performance, Tito invites Gina to sing with him at the New York Metropolitan Opera, as a substitute for a soprano who is ill. She agrees. Gina, Tito, and the opera are critically acclaimed. By this time, Tito and Gina are a romantic item.

After a performance, Tito encounters a ghostly presence at the stage door exit. His father, Pietro, who did not die all those years ago.

The next morning, Pietro takes Tito to finally meet his sister Anna, who moved to New York City as a teenager. Pietro escorts him to Anna’s grave, at a cemetery. She died at age twenty-two, victim of a drug overdose. Tito is devastated by this tragic news and overcome with guilt.

Later, Tito and Gina are ready to check out of their New York hotel, when Pietro confronts Tito. Gina leaves to get a taxi. Pietro threatens to tell the media about Tito’s past, unless he is paid. Tito tells Pietro he won’t be blackmailed and practically invites him to expose his past.

In the hotel corridor, Pietro finally reveals his secret. He did kill Tito’s mother, pushed her down the stairs. Tito snaps and attacks the burly Pietro. The two wrestle and crash through a window. They fall onto a scaffold used by a window washer. As they continue fighting, Pietro loses his balance, stumbles, and a rope on a pulley winds around his neck. Pietro falls and is hanged outside the hotel window. A stunned Gina watches from the sidewalk below.

The plot returns to the opening scene. The unidentified opera singer is an elderly Tito, dressed in prison garb, as he performs at a tiny stage for his fellow inmates. A true operatic ending.