Chapter 3
Five
months passed, and as Christine's belly began to swell with life, and
her face to shine with the luminous beauty of a woman with child,
Marianne was fading. The hours and hours of late practises were
beginning to take their toll, and she was not eating properly, in a
vain attempt to change her curvaceous figure to mirror the slender
frames of her peers. But nobody noticed. The Opera Populaire had far
more important things to deal with. An up and coming young composer,
who nobody knew as anything other than 'Taphmon' has sent a new opera
to Raoul de Chagney. The Opera, which told a story of lost love and
sexual awakening, was quite simply, awe-inspiring in its beauty. The
arias written for the heroine, named Lolita, were the opera's most
striking aspect. When they were sung by Christine at a rehearsal her
clear voice reached her audience like some divine violin, and moved
everybody who heard her to tears. It was almost as if they were
written for her highly original soprano, which was unusually deep in
tone, while able to reach extraordinarily high notes. She was
undoubtedly perfect/ for the role. But disaster struck. The first
performance was originally scheduled to take place in early May, so
that Christine's pregnancy would not show, but problems with the
restored chandelier forced the Opera's managers, Firmin and Andre to
postpone the performance by three months. #
"We cannot have
a pregnant Lolita!" wailed Andre
"Andre, please, we
MUST have Madame De Chagney. She is our star!"
"Lolita
is meant to be a fifteen year-old virgin Firmin! I think we may be
asking a little too much of the audience if we ask them to ignore the
fact that our 'virgin' is in fact six months pregnant. Anyhow, it is
simply not safe for her to exert herself to that extent! Opera is
physical work, not matter how effortless she makes it look! No
Firmin. I am putting my foot down. Either we find another leading
lady, or we shall have to wait until Mme Chagney returns five months
after the birth."
"Very well." sighed Firmin,
resigning himself to his partners determination. I shall post
audition calls immediately."