The Devil's Soprano
He saw her from across the stage. From his secret viewing area behind the heavy velvet drapes that adorned Box 5. His feline vision pinpointed her every graceful movement. He blinked his yellow eyes in satisfaction. No one had ever moved across the Paris Opera stage as she did. She seemed to float. She possessed a dancer's elegance and something more. Something that couldn't be learned. He sighed. Her entrance was timed perfectly to the beautiful music the orchestra played. HIS music. This was a brand new opera. " The Devil's Soprano" it was called.
He smiled to himself. He had become a widely respected composer. One who was still something of a mystery. Reporters clamored for interviews only to be turned away by management. For the managers really were no better informed about this musical genius than the public.
As Christine sang his words, this opera written especially to express his passion for her, he sat, riveted, listening. As the production neared the climax, his fingers splayed on the armrests of the chair twitched as if they were resting on a keyboard.
The baritone, dressed in a scarlet hooded robe, stood beside her "Join me tonight, all masks removed, all secrets revealed on this night of nights" he sang. She replied "You are to me both master and lover, my one, my only, my heart of hearts." Erik's heart raced as she sang this aria.
"I'll never leave you, nor ever forsake you, nor hurt you, not ever, you're mine, only mine." She gazed directly at Box 5 as she sang. Then, as if remembering her co-star, she turned towards him slightly as they continued in a duet "We will forever be together, in life, and after, I'll haunt all your dreams, till you're there beside me, two ghosts in the twilight, bound as spirits, in eternal love…"
As they sang the final words and the orchestra joined them, and the opera came to its end, the audience as one, rose to its feet and cheered, and applauded thunderously, and bouquets of every description landed at her feet as she took the baritone's hand and stepped forward and they each bowed low, then the actor stepped aside, and gestured towards Christine and the cheers of Bravissima shook the very rafters…and, Erik was sure, would be heard all the way down to the fifth cellar.
Erik arose, still somewhat giddy by the reception this new piece engendered, and by Christine's angelic, lilting voice. In his new opera, the Devil, himself, is reformed by his love for the young woman whose soul he had hoped to claim, and instead, gained one of his own, and becomes mortal. It was, he smiled to himself, based on a true story, though no one would ever know that except him… and Christine.
He vanished into the shadows. As crowds filled the lobby and corridors of the Opera, and the requests for a moment of Christine's time mounted, she politely smiled for the photographers, made a brief statement to the press, acknowledged the talent of the mysterious composer who seemed to write only for her, and no, she couldn't reveal his identity, nor would she want to. "Some things" she smiled, shyly, "are best left to the imagination". She waved, bid them all bonsoir and then, with the help of several of the stage-hands to hold back the crowd, made her way to her dressing room where she collapsed on her bed.
The huge mirror against the wall silently slid open, and Erik stepped through it. Christine sat up, "Tonight, I gave you my soul," she said to him, "and I am dead"
He stared at her, "What…?"
She laughed. "Just something I once read somewhere and it seemed apropos!"
She moved to him and threw her arms around him. He embraced her in return, intoxicated by the smell of her hair and the perfume she always wore, the scent of lilacs. "Thank you for such beautiful music" she whispered as he stroked her hair. "And for being mine, and only mine" she smiled up at him, tears in her eyes.
"Yes, only yours, for who else would have me?" He looked down at her.
"Well, I don't want you ever trying to find that out, understand" she said mock-threateningly.
He practically beamed at her words. "There is no one else I would ever want, you are the love of my life… " he spoke, haltingly.
She snuggled against him and held her hand up so he could see his ring on her finger. "And you, mine" she sighed. "Two ghosts in the twilight" he sang to her. She joined him in the final duet "bound as spirits, in eternal love…" and with that, he took her hand and together, they made their way down to the Fifth cellar.