Hi everybody,

I am sorry for the delay in updating, but here is finally another chapter that I hope you will enjoy.

Thank you all for reading this story, for putting it on alert or adding it to favorites, and most of all a huge thank you to my loyal reviewers! ;-)

We are gong to meet another original character of mine in this story, not quite as important as aunt Ingrid (who will be back, though not right away!). I hope you will like her as well. As to the other characters, you know that I unfortunately do not own them... sigh!

Chapter 8 – Rehearsals

Once Christine had unpacked her belongings and made the dressing room her new home, she immediately checked out the score for "Norma". At first she read the text. Of course there were many words that she was unfamiliar with and she had to consult her dictionary quite a few times, but she liked the story.

Of course this Norma was a priestess in ancient Gaul at the time of the Roman occupation, and thus it seemed unlikely that she would find any similarities to her own situation in the libretto, but there were some striking parallels nevertheless to her current dilemma. Norma had been betrayed by the man she loved. True, Pollione's betrayal was different from how Christine felt betrayed by her Angel. Pollione was abandoning Norma for a new love, while her Angel had more or less abandoned Christine, when he had turned from a caring friend into a bloodthirsty madman that she could not trust any longer.

But in the end, Pollione realized the error of his ways and returned to Norma. Norma, on the other hand, overcame her hurt and thirst for revenge. And even though they had to die to atone for their crimes, they were together in the end.

Christine sighed. Was it possible? Could such a terrible rift between two people be overcome? Could jealousy, betrayal and all the emotional wounds be put aside and forgiven?

Then she thought about her Angel – Erik, she had to remind herself that his name was Erik. Ever since she had met him here, he seemed to be very much the person he had been during her childhood, the friend and guardian, looking out for her. He had clearly allowed his associate, this signor Khan, to conduct the negotiations with her since he was not sure she would be comfortable talking to him. He had just been there to let her know who she was dealing with.

From all she had learned about this particular theater and its two owners, it was rare that signor Planchet interacted with anybody. Thus, the fact that he had met her of all people, gained a very important dimension. How easy it would have been for him to keep his presence here from her! She would not even have thought twice about it, if she had not met signor Planchet, since most other people in town or even at the theater, had not met him. But he had chosen not to hide from her, to let her decide herself if she wanted to work for him. He had not tried to trick her this time.

And he had realized that it would be safer for her if people did not know she spoke French, a detail she had not even considered herself. He had also apparently made signor Khan promise that he would see to it that she was safe, since he himself did not dare to do it himself.

If he had always been like this, deep in her heart Christine knew that no matter what he looked like, she would have wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. True, he still had treated her like a child, but then, she had barely been eighteen back then, and in many ways she had still been a child.

Christine thought that the opening night of "Don Juan Triumphant" had been a turning point for her in more ways than one. That had been the night when she finally grew up, when the little girl manipulated by not one but two men, finally became her own person and made her own decisions. She had made her choice, fully aware of its consequences.

And then... if she thought about it now, she had to admit that what she had told Raoul was still true. Both her suitors, Erik as well as Raoul, had made a lot of mistakes, and pretty much the same ones. Mistakes that made her doubt she could have a future with either of them. And yet... Erik had understood in the end. He had let her go, even though she had not asked him to do so, while Raoul had kept begging her to stay with him even when she had explained to him why she could not. Was that not a point in Erik's favor?

But... there was also another side to the situation. In a way Erik had gone further than Raoul in his jealous madness and hatred. He had become so unhinged that he had killed an innocent stagehand, Buquet. Could she ever forgive him for this crime? And what about Piangi? He had been seriously injured by her Angel, so that the latter could take over as Don Juan and sing the seductive duet with her on stage. Even Raoul... when she last saw him there had still been marks around his neck from the rope her Angel had put around it.

Could she truly forgive all that, even if he were changing now? Christine felt torn. Part of her longed for their old friendship and part of her still shrank away from him, the criminal.

Xxxx

The next day, Christine went to the rehearsal room Nadir had shown her and started learning her part. She immediately fell in love with Norma's entrance aria "Casta Diva". But what she liked even better was the following cabaletta. At that point Norma did not know yet that her lover was pursuing another woman, yet she promised herself that she would defend him, the Roman, the enemy, against the whole world, if only his love for her would be strong and beautiful like before. That was so similar to how Christine herself felt about her teacher! If only their relationship could have remained as it was before those terrible events in Paris, … Yes, Christine knew that back then she would have defended her Angel against everything and everybody and fought tooth and nails to protect him. If only she could go back to those days...

Then there was the ending, the final confrontation between Norma and Pollione, when he had been caught by the Gauls, trying to break into the temple and abduct his new love Adalgisa, when he was finally in Norma's hands and she had the chance to repay him for all the pain he had caused her. Was that not similar to how she had screamed at her teacher, when she had suddenly been face to face with him again?

Xxxx

Two days later, Christine went to the cafeteria after studying her role at the piano for several hours. She was beginning to feel comfortable with most of it and thought she was making good progress with the part. Of course there was also the nagging question at the bottom of her thoughts of whether or not her teacher would be satisfied with the way she was singing the various passages. She wondered if he had even tried to listen to her private rehearsals so far. She knew he could oversee and overhear the main stage, so next week, when Carducci would accompany her on the piano there, he would be able to listen to her singing.

Would he get in contact with her then? Would he maybe ask Signor Khan to convey a message to her about what he liked or did not like about her interpretation? He probably would not talk to her directly, he seemed determined not to bother her. Or maybe those memories from two years ago were painful for him as well and he could not face her yet.

Christine was deep in thought, absentmindedly nibbling at her sandwich, her eyes on her open score, but not really seeing the music and the words on the page, when suddenly a pretty young woman about her own age with dark hair and dark eyes approached her.

"Excuse me, are you Ingrid Johannsen?" she asked, and when Christine nodded, she introduced herself.

"I am Anna Lena Vigelli," she explained, "I have been cast as Adalgisa. We will have several important scenes together, so I thought we might as well get acquainted."

Christine smiled. She immediately liked Anna Lena. "Pleased to meet you, signorina Vigelli," she said. "I hear you are not from here either and that you might therefore stay at the theater as well?"

Anna Lena nodded. "Yes, I am from Perugia, which is too far away from here to do the daily commute. The offer to live here has therefore been convenient for me, since it saves me rent. This is my first job," she confided, "therefore I have to be careful not to spend too much yet."

Christine nodded. "I understand," she said. "I come from a tiny village in Sweden, and am just as happy as you are to have landed this job."

Anna Lena gasped. "You came all the way from Sweden to work here?" she asked. "You have not been living in Italy for some time, maybe studying singing or something? Why would you have come here from so far away?"

Christine had expected such a question to turn up during a job interview and had therefore prepared an answer.

"No, I have not been in Italy before. As I told you, I lived in a small village in Sweden. I had private music lessons. And I came here because I heard that Italy is the country where opera was invented, that there are opera houses even in the smaller towns and therefore I thought it might be easier to find employment here, even without any prior experience or references."

Anna Lena nodded. That she could understand. But she was really glad that her family lived relatively close by, that she therefore could see them every now and then and had not had to leave them for months and months on end. If she were as far away from her loved ones as this Ingrid person obviously was, she would feel very lonely.

"My mother could not come with me," Anna Lena explained, "since I have five younger siblings that need her. Therefore I am glad I can stay here at the theater. Even though my family is not too far away, I still feel a bit unchaperoned and on my own here. How about you?"

Christine nodded. "Yes, min mamma could not accompany me either, she has responsibilities at home, with the little farm we own. I did not expect to run into problems, as I said, our village is quite small, we do not know much of the world, but now I am really happy that I can stay at the theater as well. In coming here there have been two or three occasions where I really would have liked to have a chaperon with me. Nothing too serious, but enough to make me accept this offer at once."

"Couldn't your father have taken care of the farm?" Anna Lena asked. "Or do you have younger siblings as well that your mother could not leave?"

A wave of sadness swept over Christine as Anna Lena asked about her father. "Min pappa is dead," she explained. "And I do not have any siblings. Just min mamma." She knew that she gave the impression that the "mamma" she referred to was her birth mother, not her aunt and mother by adoption, but then, she now was used to calling aunt Ingrid mamma, and if signorina Johannsen was known to have a mother, she could at least admit that her father was dead – without having to fear that people might suspect who she truly was, for it had been widely known that Christine Daaé's father was deceased.

"Oh, how sad!" Anna Lena was quick at trying to comfort her. "I am sorry to have reminded you of your loss, for it is obvious that you loved your father dearly."

Christine nodded sadly. "I did love him very much, but at least I have min mamma, even though she is far away, but we write regularly."

Anna Lena nodded. "With the rehearsals soon starting big time I won't be able to go home very often either, even though I live rather close by," she informed Christine. "But I am still glad I got the chance to perform at this theater. It may not be the biggest, but it will allow me to gain experience."

She glanced at Christine's open score. "I see you have started learning your part as well," she said. "Have you already seen that absolutely wonderful duet the two of us will have to sing in the second act? I would love to hear how it sounds if sung by two ladies. So far I have only played my part on the piano. What do you think, should we try?"

Christine thought that was a good idea, it could not hurt if the two of them worked on the duet before doing it first with Cantucci and later with the full orchestra.

They both headed for the rehearsal room and tried the duet. Since neither Christine nor Anna Lena were particularly good at playing the piano accompaniment, it took them a while, but after a few trials they managed to at least get the singing right, using the piano as little as possible, just to help them find their notes or to prepare them about an unexpected turn in the accompaniment.

"You are wonderful," Anna Lena gushed, after they had finally managed to get through the whole duet for the first time. "I am not surprised they hired you, I do not think anybody could sing that better!"

"You did great, too," Christine returned the compliment. "Considering that we both are beginners with no experience at all, I think we are handling this quite well." She looked away. "I just wish I knew if my teacher would approve as well," she said without thinking.

"Your teacher?" Anna Lena asked curiously. "He must have been pretty good, I think. Your voice is lovely to begin with, but your technique is really something. Was he very strict?"

Christine smiled. Only now it occurred to her that it might have been better not to mention her teacher. But then, what harm was done? Anna Lena most likely assumed that he was way back in Sweden and had no connection whatsoever with the theater here.

"Yes, he was very strict," Christine therefore admitted. "But I learned a great deal from him that way and I am grateful to him."

The two ladies then agreed that they would run through the duet again before starting rehearsals in earnest with signor Carducci the following week. Both of them wanted to be well prepared!

Xxx

In the following days Christine and Anna Lena spent a lot of time together. They were fast becoming friends. Both were anxious to perfect their parts and to justify the trust the two managers had shown in them by hiring these two unknown newcomers.

"Do you think the managers will be there when we rehearse on stage with signor Cantucci?" Anna Lena asked the day before their first appointment with the pianist.

Christine did not know what to say. She was almost a hundred percent certain that Erik would listen to them from his office, but she was not prepared to reveal to Anna Lena that she knew he could do so – and even less so the reason why he had to do that.

"I do not know," she therefore said uneasily. "After all, it will just be a first run through."

"You are probably right," Anna Lena agreed. "Though I would have thought that signor Planchet, who is supposedly the artistic director, would want to get an idea of how we are doing. Signor Khan is, as far as I have understood, more the business administrator here."

Christine looked up surprised. "I am sure signor Planchet had the final say in hiring us," she said. "At least, that was what signor Khan told me when I auditioned."

"But he wasn't there, or was he?" Anna Lena said. "Of course it was dark during the auditions, so he could have been sitting somewhere in the auditorium, but the only one that talked to me was signor Khan. I mean, if he is the artistic director, he should have been the one to tell me I have been hired, don't you think?"

Christine nodded. She understood that this might have looked strange to her new friend.

"I remember that mezzo-sopranos were auditioning before sopranos," she tried to come up with an explanation. "When it was my turn, signor Khan was really pleased with my performance, but he told me the final decision would be signor Planchet's, that I might have to come back to sing for him..."

Anna Lena stared at her. "You have seen that elusive person?" she asked.

Christine knew she had to be careful. "I understood that he was not feeling too well that day," she tried to find an excuse for Erik's unusual behavior. "He may have still been able to listen to the mezzo-sopranos, thus heard you, while sitting in the dark auditorium, but did not feel well enough to talk to you. When it was finally my turn he must have left, so I had to come back the next day."

"So you did meet him?" Anna Lena asked. "What is he like?"

"He must still not have been feeling too well," Christine tried once more to explain. "Or maybe he is extremely shy. For signor Khan did most of the talking. And I assume he is very busy," she added, "for signor Khan told me he also is in charge of set and costume design."

"Don't you think it is strange that he keeps to himself that much?" Anna Lena asked. "He runs a theater and can't seem to stand being around people? How weird is that?"

"I don't know," Christine replied weakly, "it is kind of unusual, you are right."

And she made a mental note to let Erik know that he had to find a way to interact a bit more with his employees if he did not want to make them think that there was something strange about him, or – heaven forbid – that there was a mystery about him. He had tried his best to help her conceal her identity by reminding her to keep her knowledge of French a secret. She now had to return the favor and bring her colleague's concerns to his attention.