Rufino The Catalan Casanova

An engaging and charming Black Sea Gentleman with the skills of entertainer, violinist, card dealer, escape artist and distorter of truth. Excerpt from THE HISTORY OF MIKELANGELO AND THE BLACK SEA GENTLEMEN: For decades the group toured Europe and Asia Minor receiving ovations and accolades. All was well until the sudden and tragic demise of the beloved Senor Handsome on the eve of the groups’ debut at the Kirov Opera, St. Petersburg. Though details remain shrouded in mystery, it is believed he was thrown from his horse while hastily leaving the residence of one of his many lovers…and in that awful moment it seemed that the Black Sea Gentlemen would be no more. Despondent, the Gentlemen left St. Petersburg and made their way to the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Varna, hitting the drinking houses to drown their collective sorrow. It was in a particularly seedy gambling den, at some unfathomable hour, that the Gentlemen lost all their worldly possessions to a sly young Catalan Casanova named Rufino. The inveterate gambler and confidence man was bemused at having won himself a piano accordion, a clarinet and a kontrabass, and announced, ‘I once swindled the devil himself for his infernal violin only to lose it in a card game a few days later, all I have left is the bow!’ Half mad with grief and drink, Mikelangelo then brought out the last thing the Gentlemen had, Senor Handsome’s violin, and placed it on the gambling table. Instantly, tears welled up in the eyes of Rufino and he began to shake quite uncontrollably. Calming himself with a walnut brandy, he opened the case, gently picked up the instrument and played a lament so heartrending that the whole room fell silent. He then cleared his throat, ‘my friends, this was once my brother’s violin, just last night I dreamed that he died, tell me this is not true.’ The Gentlemen all stared into the eyes of Rufino and saw that same fire that had danced in the eyes of Senor Handsome, and in that moment they knew that he too was a Black Sea Gentleman.