Music and other Arts of War
Characters Glossary
Primary Characters in Green
Secondary Characters in Blue
Other Characters in Black
ARESBURG, NEHEMIAH (fiction character)
Nehemiah Aresburg--from the once wealthy Renaissance family who built their summer palace in Siena. He is married to Rachael Ebenstein Aresburg. He was one of the youngest forgers to work with Icilio Joni and Umberto Giunti (both historic characters). He is father to Zita and Franceso. He and Rachael run the Palazzo Hotel, their family's former Renaissance Palace.
ARESBURG, NICCOLO (fiction character)
14 years old Aresburg boy. He is Zita’s brother, Rachael and Nehemiah are his parents.
ARESBURG, RACHAEL (fiction character)
Rachael Ebenstein Aresburg, Nehemiah's wife and mother to Zita and Niccolo.
ARESBURG, Zita (fiction character)
10 year old Aresburg daughter and Niccolo’s sister.
BANDINI, PAOLO (fiction character)
Paolo Bandini is 24 years old. He is from Siena studying violin at the Florence Conservatory of music. He has an apartment in Florence but spends most of his time at home in Siena. He is from an aristocratic Italian family that dates back to the 1200 that were founders of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena banking dynasty. The family vineyards and winery in the Chianti region is one of the world oldest family businesses. The Bandinis are one of the wealthiest families in pre-WWII Italy. (NOTE: although Sallustio Bandini is a historical figure, the Bandini family line ran out long ago. Paolo Bandini is a fictional character.) Paolo lives at the family palazzo in Siena (now the home of the Continental Hotel Siena).
BAUER, BRUNO (fiction character)
Bruno, German, early 30s, smallish, with the build and grace of an athlete is 22 years old. He is a former child prodigy and somewhat internationally famous violinist and despite a sought after teacher. Educated at the University in Cologne, he now teaches at the Conservatory of Music in Florence. He is Paolo's teacher in Florence and commutes to Venice to teach violin to Evie due to the high commission paid to him and the Conservatory by Evie's patron Morris Maxwell (Max). He left Germany after the publication of Mein Kauf. His brother Matthew (Mattie) is a piano student in Cologne. He is as charming, clever, and ambitious as he is talented. He and Evie are perfect platonic partners musically and otherwise.
BANFI, GIORDANO (fiction character)
Giordano Banfi, early 30s, priest and organmaster/choirmaster at Siena's Duomo. He is a school chum of Antonella’s and Francesco’s and they have remained friends through the years. He has had a surprisingly rapid rise through the ranks of the Catholic church. Many Sinese are growing skeptical of the Church and Italy’s treatment of the Jews.
BEAUMONT, ALESSANDRO (fiction character)
ALESSANDRO BEAUMONT, (mid 40s) handsome, fit, especially well dressed, moves with confidence of a man who spends his professional life moving in front of people. mid 40s, Born and educated in Paris, conducts opera throughout Europe but mostly in Italy where he holds dual citizenship. He is currently at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He is the epitome of European charm and grace. However, his allegiances during this time are confusing.
BIANCHI, FRANCESCO (fiction character)
Francesco Bianchi early 30s, tall, trim, dark, athletic, with memorable good looks. He habitually dresses in his kaki “digging” attire with a “Siena University Archaeology” name tag. He, Antonella, Giordano and Paolo went to high school and college together (U of Siena). He and Antonella were sweethearts in their teen years and remained in a loving relationship since. They are happy in their relationship are not in a hurry to marry.
CASELLA, ALFRED (historic character)
(1883-1947) Composer, pianist, conductor born in Turin, Italy. Studied at the Paris Conservatory under Faure. He made his American conducting debut in 1921 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was conductor of the Boston Pops from 1927-29. He promoted avant guard and Renaissance and Baroque Italian music. He return to Italy in 1938 and lived mostly in Rome. He and Ezra Pound supported the Fascist Cultural Nationalism and both were important in the organizing Siena’s Vivaldi Festival Week.
CIPRIANI, GIUSEPPE (historic character)
Giuseppe Cipriani--Original owner of Harry's Bar in Venice (Harry's son runs the place today). The bar was named after American Harry Pickering. When Giuseppe worked at the Hotel Europe Bar (Venice), he loaned a broke Harry 10,000 Lira never expecting to see his money again. Later Harry repaid him a total of 40,000 Lira and told him to open a bar for "high society and name it Harry's." Giuseppe did. During WwII Giuseppe, like many Italians, did what he could to stay alive and working. After the war Harry's Bar became a watering hole for Americans Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joe de Maggio, Katherine Hepburn, Peggy Guggenheim, and others.
DUMONT, MRS. (fiction character)
Mrs. Dumont was Sophia Stallenberger's dresser and companion when she toured Tuscany before Evie was born. She brought Evie back to New York from Venice but Evie was taken from her upon arrival and Evie disappeared into the orphanages of NYC. She rediscovered Evie years later and relayed to her the history of her past.
FOSTER, EVIE (fiction character)
Evie, mid 20s, combination of all-American girl and haute couture ingénue, American expat living in Venice, studies violin. A remarkably brilliant violinist. She was raised in a series of orphanages until she was "discovered" by an American industrialist who sponsored a series of recitals for the orphanages of New York. Morris Maxwell (Max) is currently her patron and is financing her studies in Venice. She believes she may have been born in Venice, the illegitimate child of opera singer Sophia Stallenberger. As an infant she may have been brought to the US by Sophia’s dresser and voice coach after Sophia died aboard a passenger ship. Evie choose Venice "studies abroad" city because she believes she can unlock mysteries of who her parents birth parents. She is beautiful and charming and smart and living a charmed life in Venice. She is loved by everyone.
GENTILI, DR. ALBERTO (historic character)
In 1926 Dr. Gentili, composer, director and musicologist at the University in Turin Italy was contacted by Salesian Fathers after they discovered rare printed music, manuscripts and autographs of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries in their archives including the Vivaldi autograph manuscripts. He was instrumental in spending years securing the 97 volumes for the Turin Library which today holds 95% of Vivaldi's known manuscripts. He was Jewish and spent WWII in hiding; died in Milan in the 1950s.
Antonio Barone (in the fashion of GIUNTI, UMBERTO--historic character)
He and Icilio Joni were two of the most famous artifacts forger from Siena's golden age of Renaissance Forgery.
HOFFMAN, BOIAN (fiction character)
Boian, eraly 20s, med student at University of Siena from Munich, Germany. Joined the Italian resistance early on.
Vincenzo Romano (in the fashion of JONI, ICILIO--historic character)
He and Umberto Giunti were two of the most famous artifacts forger from Siena's golden age of Renaissance Forgery. Both published their memoirs.
LOMBARDI, ANTONELLA(fiction character)
Antonella, late 20s, is a personification of classical Mediterranean female beauty and she moves with the confidence of her upper middle-class upbringing. She is a Sineise piano professor at Accademia Chigiana and part time Chigi secretary/translator and sometimes an assistant to Olga Rudge (historic character). She is a friend and former classmate of Paolo, Francesco and Giordano (all fiction characters). Her family is also friends with the Arensburgs, (also fiction characters). Both of her parents recently passed away and she and her sister were left a sizable inheritance including a villa near Siena and a sprawling apartment overlooking Il Campo.
LOMBARDI, ILARIA (fiction character)
Iliaria Lombardi is Antonella’s younger sister. When the Aresburgs were taken away, she moved in the Palazzo Hotel to help Antonella.
MORRIS, MAXWELL WESTON (fiction character)
Evie’s patron from NYC. Early 60s, powerful and wealthy industrialist and arts patron. While sponsoring a series of NYC orphanage recitals, he discovering Evie and has been her sole patron since she was 14. They have had a sexual relationship since was was 16. He spares no expense on her and is currently paying for her education in Italy. He is married with a family who loves Evie and is unaware of the long-running affair.
POUND, EZRA (historical character)
Of all the major literary figures in the twentieth century, Ezra Pound has been one of the most controversial; he has also been one of modern poetry's most important contributors. He and long time companion Olga Rudge were instrumental in rediscovering Antonio Vivaldi. In Italy, he was a paid mouthpiece of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in Mussolini's Fascists Regime. After the war, Pound was arrested and tried for treason and served 10 years in a mental institution near Washington, DC.
RUDGE, OLGA (historical character)
Olga Rudge was the daughter of a wealthy Youngstown, Oio, Steel family. She was a gifted concert violinist who lived most of her life in Europe. She met Pound in Paris and soon began an affair that lasted more than 50 years until Pound's death in Venice in 1972 (although he remained married to Dorothy Shakespeare) and bore him his only child, Mary. Olga and her long time companion distinguished poet Ezra Pound were the first to champion the Turin Vivaldi manuscripts. Olga probably deserves more credit than anyone for the initial perpetuation of Vivaldi's rediscovery; she was instrumental in arranging and planning the 1939 Vivaldi Fest in Siena; she published the first thematic catalogue of Viavaldi's wo She lived to be almost 101 years old and is buried in Venice next to Pound.
SCHÖNHAUS, CIOMA (historic character)
One of the great, now celebrated, forgers of exit documents and passports for German Jews before and dureing WWII.
SARACINI, GUIDO CHIGI (historic character)
Guido Chigi Saracini (1880 - 1965) established the Aaccademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Itlay, in 1932 with the advise of composer conductor Alfred Caserlla. The Summer Conservatory of Master Classes soon became famous world wide. Some of this success was also due to the work of Olga Rudge who, was the Count's secretary for over 30 years and support from the bank Monte dei Paschi bank of Siena (the world's oldest bank).
STALLENBERGER, SOPHIA (fictional character)
Sophia Stallenberger, allegedly Evie's mother, was an expat American soprano who died when the Germans sunk the HMS Liverpool at the beginning of WWI. She was educated and made here carrier in Europe. She was performing in Florence when she became pregnant. To avoid scandal she had her child in Venice then had resumed her concert schedule in London. She was headed back for a US tour on the HMS Liverpool was sunk. Mrs. Dumont was her companion/dresser who was bringing Sophia's child back to NYC on a separate ship out of Venice.
Characters Glossary
Primary Characters in Green
Secondary Characters in Blue
Other Characters in Black
ARESBURG, NEHEMIAH (fiction character)
Nehemiah Aresburg--from the once wealthy Renaissance family who built their summer palace in Siena. He is married to Rachael Ebenstein Aresburg. He was one of the youngest forgers to work with Icilio Joni and Umberto Giunti (both historic characters). He is father to Zita and Franceso. He and Rachael run the Palazzo Hotel, their family's former Renaissance Palace.
ARESBURG, NICCOLO (fiction character)
14 years old Aresburg boy. He is Zita’s brother, Rachael and Nehemiah are his parents.
ARESBURG, RACHAEL (fiction character)
Rachael Ebenstein Aresburg, Nehemiah's wife and mother to Zita and Niccolo.
ARESBURG, Zita (fiction character)
10 year old Aresburg daughter and Niccolo’s sister.
BANDINI, PAOLO (fiction character)
Paolo Bandini is 24 years old. He is from Siena studying violin at the Florence Conservatory of music. He has an apartment in Florence but spends most of his time at home in Siena. He is from an aristocratic Italian family that dates back to the 1200 that were founders of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena banking dynasty. The family vineyards and winery in the Chianti region is one of the world oldest family businesses. The Bandinis are one of the wealthiest families in pre-WWII Italy. (NOTE: although Sallustio Bandini is a historical figure, the Bandini family line ran out long ago. Paolo Bandini is a fictional character.) Paolo lives at the family palazzo in Siena (now the home of the Continental Hotel Siena).
BAUER, BRUNO (fiction character)
Bruno, German, early 30s, smallish, with the build and grace of an athlete is 22 years old. He is a former child prodigy and somewhat internationally famous violinist and despite a sought after teacher. Educated at the University in Cologne, he now teaches at the Conservatory of Music in Florence. He is Paolo's teacher in Florence and commutes to Venice to teach violin to Evie due to the high commission paid to him and the Conservatory by Evie's patron Morris Maxwell (Max). He left Germany after the publication of Mein Kauf. His brother Matthew (Mattie) is a piano student in Cologne. He is as charming, clever, and ambitious as he is talented. He and Evie are perfect platonic partners musically and otherwise.
BANFI, GIORDANO (fiction character)
Giordano Banfi, early 30s, priest and organmaster/choirmaster at Siena's Duomo. He is a school chum of Antonella’s and Francesco’s and they have remained friends through the years. He has had a surprisingly rapid rise through the ranks of the Catholic church. Many Sinese are growing skeptical of the Church and Italy’s treatment of the Jews.
BEAUMONT, ALESSANDRO (fiction character)
ALESSANDRO BEAUMONT, (mid 40s) handsome, fit, especially well dressed, moves with confidence of a man who spends his professional life moving in front of people. mid 40s, Born and educated in Paris, conducts opera throughout Europe but mostly in Italy where he holds dual citizenship. He is currently at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. He is the epitome of European charm and grace. However, his allegiances during this time are confusing.
BIANCHI, FRANCESCO (fiction character)
Francesco Bianchi early 30s, tall, trim, dark, athletic, with memorable good looks. He habitually dresses in his kaki “digging” attire with a “Siena University Archaeology” name tag. He, Antonella, Giordano and Paolo went to high school and college together (U of Siena). He and Antonella were sweethearts in their teen years and remained in a loving relationship since. They are happy in their relationship are not in a hurry to marry.
CASELLA, ALFRED (historic character)
(1883-1947) Composer, pianist, conductor born in Turin, Italy. Studied at the Paris Conservatory under Faure. He made his American conducting debut in 1921 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was conductor of the Boston Pops from 1927-29. He promoted avant guard and Renaissance and Baroque Italian music. He return to Italy in 1938 and lived mostly in Rome. He and Ezra Pound supported the Fascist Cultural Nationalism and both were important in the organizing Siena’s Vivaldi Festival Week.
CIPRIANI, GIUSEPPE (historic character)
Giuseppe Cipriani--Original owner of Harry's Bar in Venice (Harry's son runs the place today). The bar was named after American Harry Pickering. When Giuseppe worked at the Hotel Europe Bar (Venice), he loaned a broke Harry 10,000 Lira never expecting to see his money again. Later Harry repaid him a total of 40,000 Lira and told him to open a bar for "high society and name it Harry's." Giuseppe did. During WwII Giuseppe, like many Italians, did what he could to stay alive and working. After the war Harry's Bar became a watering hole for Americans Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joe de Maggio, Katherine Hepburn, Peggy Guggenheim, and others.
DUMONT, MRS. (fiction character)
Mrs. Dumont was Sophia Stallenberger's dresser and companion when she toured Tuscany before Evie was born. She brought Evie back to New York from Venice but Evie was taken from her upon arrival and Evie disappeared into the orphanages of NYC. She rediscovered Evie years later and relayed to her the history of her past.
FOSTER, EVIE (fiction character)
Evie, mid 20s, combination of all-American girl and haute couture ingénue, American expat living in Venice, studies violin. A remarkably brilliant violinist. She was raised in a series of orphanages until she was "discovered" by an American industrialist who sponsored a series of recitals for the orphanages of New York. Morris Maxwell (Max) is currently her patron and is financing her studies in Venice. She believes she may have been born in Venice, the illegitimate child of opera singer Sophia Stallenberger. As an infant she may have been brought to the US by Sophia’s dresser and voice coach after Sophia died aboard a passenger ship. Evie choose Venice "studies abroad" city because she believes she can unlock mysteries of who her parents birth parents. She is beautiful and charming and smart and living a charmed life in Venice. She is loved by everyone.
GENTILI, DR. ALBERTO (historic character)
In 1926 Dr. Gentili, composer, director and musicologist at the University in Turin Italy was contacted by Salesian Fathers after they discovered rare printed music, manuscripts and autographs of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries in their archives including the Vivaldi autograph manuscripts. He was instrumental in spending years securing the 97 volumes for the Turin Library which today holds 95% of Vivaldi's known manuscripts. He was Jewish and spent WWII in hiding; died in Milan in the 1950s.
Antonio Barone (in the fashion of GIUNTI, UMBERTO--historic character)
He and Icilio Joni were two of the most famous artifacts forger from Siena's golden age of Renaissance Forgery.
HOFFMAN, BOIAN (fiction character)
Boian, eraly 20s, med student at University of Siena from Munich, Germany. Joined the Italian resistance early on.
Vincenzo Romano (in the fashion of JONI, ICILIO--historic character)
He and Umberto Giunti were two of the most famous artifacts forger from Siena's golden age of Renaissance Forgery. Both published their memoirs.
LOMBARDI, ANTONELLA(fiction character)
Antonella, late 20s, is a personification of classical Mediterranean female beauty and she moves with the confidence of her upper middle-class upbringing. She is a Sineise piano professor at Accademia Chigiana and part time Chigi secretary/translator and sometimes an assistant to Olga Rudge (historic character). She is a friend and former classmate of Paolo, Francesco and Giordano (all fiction characters). Her family is also friends with the Arensburgs, (also fiction characters). Both of her parents recently passed away and she and her sister were left a sizable inheritance including a villa near Siena and a sprawling apartment overlooking Il Campo.
LOMBARDI, ILARIA (fiction character)
Iliaria Lombardi is Antonella’s younger sister. When the Aresburgs were taken away, she moved in the Palazzo Hotel to help Antonella.
MORRIS, MAXWELL WESTON (fiction character)
Evie’s patron from NYC. Early 60s, powerful and wealthy industrialist and arts patron. While sponsoring a series of NYC orphanage recitals, he discovering Evie and has been her sole patron since she was 14. They have had a sexual relationship since was was 16. He spares no expense on her and is currently paying for her education in Italy. He is married with a family who loves Evie and is unaware of the long-running affair.
POUND, EZRA (historical character)
Of all the major literary figures in the twentieth century, Ezra Pound has been one of the most controversial; he has also been one of modern poetry's most important contributors. He and long time companion Olga Rudge were instrumental in rediscovering Antonio Vivaldi. In Italy, he was a paid mouthpiece of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in Mussolini's Fascists Regime. After the war, Pound was arrested and tried for treason and served 10 years in a mental institution near Washington, DC.
RUDGE, OLGA (historical character)
Olga Rudge was the daughter of a wealthy Youngstown, Oio, Steel family. She was a gifted concert violinist who lived most of her life in Europe. She met Pound in Paris and soon began an affair that lasted more than 50 years until Pound's death in Venice in 1972 (although he remained married to Dorothy Shakespeare) and bore him his only child, Mary. Olga and her long time companion distinguished poet Ezra Pound were the first to champion the Turin Vivaldi manuscripts. Olga probably deserves more credit than anyone for the initial perpetuation of Vivaldi's rediscovery; she was instrumental in arranging and planning the 1939 Vivaldi Fest in Siena; she published the first thematic catalogue of Viavaldi's wo She lived to be almost 101 years old and is buried in Venice next to Pound.
SCHÖNHAUS, CIOMA (historic character)
One of the great, now celebrated, forgers of exit documents and passports for German Jews before and dureing WWII.
SARACINI, GUIDO CHIGI (historic character)
Guido Chigi Saracini (1880 - 1965) established the Aaccademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Itlay, in 1932 with the advise of composer conductor Alfred Caserlla. The Summer Conservatory of Master Classes soon became famous world wide. Some of this success was also due to the work of Olga Rudge who, was the Count's secretary for over 30 years and support from the bank Monte dei Paschi bank of Siena (the world's oldest bank).
STALLENBERGER, SOPHIA (fictional character)
Sophia Stallenberger, allegedly Evie's mother, was an expat American soprano who died when the Germans sunk the HMS Liverpool at the beginning of WWI. She was educated and made here carrier in Europe. She was performing in Florence when she became pregnant. To avoid scandal she had her child in Venice then had resumed her concert schedule in London. She was headed back for a US tour on the HMS Liverpool was sunk. Mrs. Dumont was her companion/dresser who was bringing Sophia's child back to NYC on a separate ship out of Venice.
