Summary
On the sun-bleached scythe of a Calabrian cove, Gianna Russelli—limbs still tasting of salt and childhood—traces arabesques into wet sand while her brother Russino beats time with open palms, their shared pulse a promise that she will one day transcend goat-bells and olive smoke. Into this arcadian hush glides Countess Michetti, a panther in pearls, who drapes her boredom over Russino’s broad shoulders like a silk shawl; but the past arrives in white flannels and panama, Prince Viscomte, flanked by the ever-watchful Count Paul Trovelli, and the countess’s affections swivel back to sovereign flesh. A moonlit antechamber becomes a theatre of knives: Russino, discovering the prince in mid-embrace, lunges, is impaled, and the blade is abandoned as Viscomte bolts. Trovelli, entering on the echo of steel, stands transfixed over the crumpled boy while Gianna—framed in the doorway—etches the tableau into her marrow, vowing to unspool the count’s world thread by gilded thread. Years whirl; Milan’s La Scala becomes her arsenal. As the star of a feverish new ballet she seduces Trovelli, drains his coffers with a smile that could pawn sunlight, and, at the moment of final reckoning, finds the knife trembling not in her hand but in her heart: love, that most exquisite betrayal, has blunted revenge. News arrives like a telegram from the gods—the prince is dead, the true murderer named—and Gianna’s hatred collapses into a sob of relief, her vengeance transmuted into something perilously close to grace.
Synopsis
On a beach in southern Italy, Gianna Russelli practices her dancing with her devoted brother Russino, looking forward to the day when she will begin formal dance studies. One day the beautiful Countess Michetti comes to the village and engages in a flirtation with Russino, but when her former lover, Prince Viscomte, arrives with his closest friend, Count Paul Trovelli, the countess resumes her affair with the prince. Finding them together, Russino attacks the prince, who stabs the boy and flees, just as the count enters the room. Gianna sees Trovelli standing over her brother's body and makes a vow to ruin and then kill the count. As a famous dancer in Milan, she later charms the count into falling in love with her, spends all of his money, and is about to kill him when she realizes that she loves him. Gianna's agony turns to joy, however, when, with news of the prince's death, the count finally reveals that his friend committed the crime.
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