Cry to Heaven (1982)
Following the stories of two men castrated to ensure their perfect soprano voices, Cry to Heaven is a historical novel in 18th century Italy. Guido Maffeo is castrated at age six and enters the conservatory. He becomes a star until he loses his voice. When his voice is gone, he becomes a teacher, searching for a boy who can fulfill his lost dream. He comes to Venice and his life is intertwined with Tonio Treshi.

Tonio is the son of nobility and a beautiful singer. He dreams and talks of being a singer, but his family scoffs--that profession is for the castrati, not the son of a nobleman. Tonio's family is complicated, his mother a dark alcoholic who tips between lunacy and stupor, his brother (Carlo) reportedly disowned for seducing a common girl. But Tonio discovers the truth about his brother's sin and turns to his music to hide his fear and confusion. Tonio half-chooses and is half-forced into castration and begins a lifelong plot to take revenge on Carlo. He realizes at Guido's conservatory what has happened to him and refuses to sing. Guido is tormented by Tonio withholding his voice, but Tonio leaves the conservatory anyway.

Yet Tonio finds that he now has no place to belong and that his power is building. He returns and begins to sing. His two sides, dark revenge and heroic song battle for control. Tonio begins his journey of stardom and decadence, achieving no balance in his life. His sexuality proves to be a source of great complexity, confusion, and promise. The minute Tonio has sorted out his life and is finally happy, he hears his mother has died and his time has come to confront Carlo.

House of the Risin’ Sun WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN (ARR) There is a house down in New Orleans they call the rising sun And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I'm one. My mother was a tailor, she sowed these new blue jeans My sweetheart was a gambler, Lord, down in New Orleans. Now the only thing a gambler needs is a suitcase and a trunk And the only time when he's satisfied is when he's on a drunk. He fills his glasses up to the brim and he'll pass the cards around And the only pleasure he gets out of life is rambling from town to town Oh tell my baby sister not to do what I have done But shun that house in New Orleans they call the rising sun. Well with one foot on the platform and the other foot on the train I'm going back to New Orleans to wear that ball and chain. I'm going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run I'm going back to end my life down in the rising sun. There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I'm one.

गायत्र्या गीयते यस्य धियां तेजः प्रचोदकम् । चोदयेदपि कच्चिन्नः स धियः सत्पथे प्रभुः ॥७८॥ gāyatryā gīyate yasya dhiyāṁ tejaḥ pracodakam / codayedapi kaccinnaḥ sa dhiyaḥ satpathe prabhuḥ //78// There is the mantra of the Gāyatrī mantra.145 The Gāyatrī mantra is: “Oṁ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, tat savitur vareṇyaṁ, bhargo devasya dhīmahi, dhiyo yo na, praco-dayāt.” Oṁ, I accept,146 bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ, there are three worlds (bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, and svaḥ). There is this universe, there is the universe of planets, and there is the universe of . . .147 ERNIE: Heavens. SWAMIJI: Tat savitur, the sun of all of these three worlds, the shining embodiment of . . . ERNIE: Light. SWAMIJI: . . . He puts, He induces, the light on these three worlds, which are existing, which I confess they are existing (bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ, and svaḥ); tat savitur, He who is the light giver of these three worlds, and His effulgent light is vareṇyam (vareṇyam is “worth having, worth possessing”). Tat savitur vareṇyam bharga (bharga means, light), His effulgent light is worth having, worth possessing. I meditate on That light. ERNIE: That’s the mantra. SWAMIJI: This is the meaning of this Gāyatrī mantra. Vareṇyam teja, vareṇyam bharga, bhargo devasya dhī-mahi, I meditate on It, I contemplate on That light of the Lord, dhiyo yo naḥ, who will elevate our shrunken . . . “Shrunken”? JOACHIM:  Yes. SWAMIJI: . . . shrunken intellectual position, who will elevate our shrunken intellectual position and insert it in that effulgent light of the universal sun–Gāyatrī. This is the mantra of Gāyatrī. He says . . . now he refers to that mantra. JOHN: Gāyatrī means, the universal light, or . . . the word “gāyatrī”? SWAMIJI: The meaning of gāyatrī? Gāyatrī means, he who sings His glory, he is protected by That–the singer is protected. ERNIE: And the singer sings this mantra? SWAMIJI: Yes. Gāyatryā gīyate yasya dhiyāṁ tejaḥ pracodakam; yasya tejaḥ, yasya gāyatryā tejaḥ, gāyatryā gīyate, by this mantra of Gāyatrī, [the purpose for which] it is sung, “Whose effulgent light,” is dhiyām pracodakam, is inducing the power of your individual understanding to insert it in the universal understanding.148. It is pracodakam.149 [Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa says]: I don’t want that! I don’t want that thing to be done in my intellectual cycle. Codayet api kaccit naḥ sa dhiya, let that power of that effulgent light insert me, or direct me, codayet api, on the path of Śaivism. That is my pracodaka. I don’t want to elevate my intellectual cycle. I want to get myself on the path of Śaivism. That is what I . . . I long for this favor from Gāyatrī. ERNIE: Why? Because that . . . SWAMIJI: I want Śaivism, bas, that is all. ERNIE: That is more. SWAMIJI: That is more than That. I don’t want to get my intellectual cycle elevated only. I don’t want that elevation. I want myself to be stepped on the path of Śaivism.

"Street Fighting Man"

Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching charging feet, boy
'Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy

Well now what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock n' roll band?
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's just no place for a street fighting man
No

Hey think the time is right for a palace revolution
But where I live the game to play is compromise solution

Well now what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock n' roll band?
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's just no place for a street fighting man
No

(Get down)

Hey so my name is called Disturbance
I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king, I'll rail at all his servants

Well now what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock n' roll band?
'Cause in sleepy London town
There's just no place for a street fighting man
No

(Get down)

"The Singer Not The Song"

Everywhere you want I always go
I always give in because, babe, you know
You just say so
'Cause you give me that feeling inside
That I know I must be right
It's the singer not the song

It's not the way you give in willingly
Others do it without thrilling me
Giving me that same old feeling inside
That I know I must be right
It's the singer not the song

The same old places and the same old songs
We've been going there for much too long
There's something wrong
And it gives me that feeling inside
That I know I must be right
It's the singer not the song
It's the singer not the song
It's the singer not the song

“Today our uninsured rate is at its lowest level on record.” —@POTUS on our progress pic.twitter.com/NQbHiAxwcZ

Today, our businesses have created more than 15 million new jobs.” —@POTUS pic.twitter.com/AWHWyEWV6u

Breitbart's @jonkahnmusic wrote the #1 song, "Fighter,” and now he and Michael Farren have an incredible new song for America 250. Everyone should listen to "The United Saints of America,” and be proud of our Great Nation! President DONALD J. TRUMP
breitbart.com/america250/2026/

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Willy Wonka