Sorry once again for the delay! Thank you to all my loyal readers, especially those who have reviewed this story, added it to favorites and/or put it on alert. It is you guys that keep me going!
I am not quite sure when I will be able to post the next chapter, even though I suspect you will be eagerly awaiting it, when you have finished reading this one. It will be easy to guess what will happen next time...
And as you know, I do not own those characters, sadly...
Chapter 9 – Background
The next day, signor Cantucci met Christine and Anna Lena on the stage to rehearse their solo parts with them. The piano that had been used for the auditions was still there, and thus rehearsing on stage seemed more reasonable than in one of the smaller rehearsal rooms. The ladies would get a better feel for the acoustics of the large auditorium that way.
Signor Cantucci was very pleased when the two ladies told him they had already been working on their duet together and were looking forward to working with the other cast members, most notably the tenor who would be playing Pollione and the basso singing the part of Oroveso, Norma's father and leader of the Gauls.
Since Erik could not sit in the auditorium without risking that somebody might notice his mask, Nadir had decided not to attend this first rehearsal either. At least not officially. He had joined Erik in his office and the two observed and listened together.
Nadir did not have to ask Erik how he liked Christine's performance of Norma's aria "Casta Diva" and the following cabaletta. His friend seemed entranced, delighting in the sound of his beloved's voice. Apparently Erik was not the only one impressed though, since signor Cantucci was complimenting Christine as well.
"She is obviously a quick study," Nadir commented to get Erik's attention, "since you have told me you had never rehearsed that particular aria with her, while you were teaching her. But she sounds pretty much perfect to me already."
"The cabaletta was perfection," Erik agreed, "as to the aria, her technique is sublime and she has mastered the difficult piece quite well already, although I wish she could make it sound a little bit more … ethereal. After all, Norma is a priestess, addressing the moon goddess. This scene should have a certain magical, mythical quality."
Nadir smiled. "You would want to work on the aria with her," he stated matter-of-factly.
Erik looked away. "I cannot expect her to agree to working with me so closely," he whispered. "Not after everything I have put her through."
"But unless I am mistaken, you would like to do it," Nadir replied. And as Erik nodded, he continued, "if she were to contact you asking for your help – after all, you are her teacher – would you be able to remain strictly professional during a lesson?"
"She won't ask," Erik mumbled miserably, "and I can understand her attitude in that regard, so your question is moot."
"But if, hypothetically speaking, if for some reason or other she felt that she has problems with one passage or another and asked you for your help – and if you agreed to help her, as I am certain you are eager to do – would you be able to maintain a professional attitude while working with her?"
Erik sighed. That was a good question. Would he be able to keep a lesson strictly professional, in order not to frighten or disturb Christine again? Or would his feelings for her – or his temper, in case she did not immediately grasp what he was trying to convey – get the better of him again?
"I... I don't know," he finally confessed. "But you heard how she yelled at me, how she is feeling about me, therefore she wouldn't want my help anyway."
Nadir nodded, as if he agreed. He was getting a bit concerned about his friend. Christine's attacks at their first meeting had hurt Erik more than Nadir had expected, considering the fact that Erik was used to rejection. But this time rejection had come from Christine, and even though she had ultimately decided to stay, and Erik could now hear her sing again, this had not helped to lift Erik's spirits. It was clear that Erik wanted a chance to interact with Christine, but did not think he should approach her, because he had promised to leave her alone.
Xxx
Later that day, Nadir met Christine at the cafeteria. To his surprise she immediately approached him and asked if she could speak to him. "In private", she added meaningfully.
"Of course, signorina Johannsen," Nadir replied, glad about this unexpected opportunity to talk to her and maybe find out a bit more about how she was feeling about Erik's presence here. "In fact, I have something to discuss with you as well. Will you please follow me to my office?"
Once they had reached Nadir's office, he turned to her. "How can I help you, signorina?"
"My An..., I mean Erik, needs to find a way to attend rehearsals, at least every now and then, where people can see him," she blurted out, and when Nadir gave her a surprised look, she related to him exactly what Anna Lena had said, how strange it was that a signor Planchet had hired her, whom she had never seen and who was not even attending rehearsals.
"But you know that he cannot do that," Nadir reminded her. "I understand your concern and I see why your colleague and probably other members of our company might feel that way, but ..."
"I have been thinking about it, after Anna Lena brought this up," Christine said. "That leather mask that he now wears is not as noticeable as the white one was. If he were sitting in one of the boxes that are farther away from the stage, stage-right of course, then anybody on stage or in the pit could probably only see his left profile. But he would be there, the musicians could see him and if there were anything he wanted them to change he could call down and tell them in person."
Nadir thought about it for a few minutes, then he nodded. "That might actually work," he agreed. "Though I suspect, Erik will want to install a bolt at the inside of the box, so that nobody can enter when he is there, and he would need to wear his lifelike mask in the corridors on his way to and from the box. I will discuss this with him."
Christine seemed relieved.
"You are worried about Erik's reputation at the theater," Nadir's next words sounded more like a statement than a question.
"I.. uh... he helped me by drafting my contract in Swedish," Christine stammered, "I just wanted to return the favor..."
"So I take it that you cannot complain about Erik's behavior towards you so far?" Nadir asked cautiously.
Christine shook her head. "Oh no," she said. "In fact, I have not seen him since I signed my contract. If I did not know that he stays away from the other musicians as well, I would almost think that he is avoiding me."
"Are you trying to tell me, that you would not want him to avoid you?" Nadir inquired.
Christine thought about it for a moment. Of course meeting her teacher again had at first been a shock to her and she knew that she had overreacted at their first meeting. But she had now been at the theater for slightly over a week, and she saw that everything was running smoothly, that the musicians hired were of the highest quality, in fact, that Erik was doing a fabulous job here and that he therefore deserved respect for his work.
"I think I owe him an apology," she finally confessed. "For screaming at him like that. This company is a fantastic one, very professional, and I am well aware that this is thanks to him."
Nadir smiled. "Yes, Erik is striving to make this one the best opera theater in all of Italy," he said. "And I am glad that he is putting so much energy into it. When I first heard that this little gem of a theater was up for sale, I brought it to his attention, since I knew that running a theater is what he does best and what he likes doing. I hoped it would be therapeutic."
Christine frowned. "Therapeutic?" she asked.
Nadir sighed. He realized that he had maybe said a bit more than he had planned to tell her. But now that he had said it, he had to give her an explanation.
"That night in Paris, Erik came to me," he began. "I am not sure he would want you to know, but he was a mess. He was in such an emotional turmoil, a mixture of shame, guilt, heartbreak, and possibly a few other emotions as well, short, he was in a state not even I had seen him in before. I am not even sure he understood what was going on, when we smuggled him out of Paris and across the nearest border to keep him safe."
"We?" Christine asked.
"Me and Darius," Nadir explained. "You have met Darius, he is now working as our concierge here at the theater, but he is my most loyal servant, he has been with my family for decades, he followed me from Persia to Paris, and he has helped me with Erik ever since the latter came to our apartment that night."
"Erik was improving only slowly, he had no perspective anymore. Thus we decided that the man needed a new purpose in life and when we heard about this theater, we tried to get him interested in it. Fortunately, it worked." Nadir grinned.
"You care for Erik very much," Christine realized. "Even though you know about all the terrible things he did in Paris, you still care for him, you still see good in him. How come?"
Nadir looked down. That was a touchy subject. He immediately understood that Christine wanted to still care about Erik, but that the memory of the events in Paris made it difficult for her to fully appreciate Erik's positive characteristics.
"I feel responsible for him," Nadir finally admitted. "I am indirectly responsible for some of his most traumatic experiences. No, I am not going to give you details, this is definitely something you should either hear from Erik himself or never hear at all. But it was me who brought him to Persia, where he … well, that does not belong here. And then, I am forever in his debt for what he did for my son." He looked away from Christine, trying very hard not to let her see that he was fighting back tears.
"Your son?" Christine asked. "You have a son? And a wife?"
Nadir shook his head. "Not any more," he whispered. "My Rookheya died in childbirth, and our son... Reza was suffering from a terminal illness, he died very young. Erik apparently felt a certain kinship with my sickly boy, since he himself has to live with a handicap as well. He therefore was Reza's best friend and he helped him a lot – in more ways than one."
Nadir was most definitely not going to tell Christine what exactly Erik had done for Reza, for that might frighten her again.
"That's probably why he knew how to talk to me, the frightened little girl crying for her dead father," Christine mused. "He had experience with children, namely your son."
"Probably. Anyway, because of all this, I see Erik as my responsibility, he is in a way Reza's legacy for me," Nadir explained.
"But none of this is what I wanted to discuss with you," he continued. "Erik and I have listened in on your rehearsal this morning."
"Oh!" Christine exclaimed. "What did he say? Did he like my singing? I did try to get my voice back in shape before coming here, but I know that I am probably lacking in some way... he is such a perfectionist, he would certainly want me to be flawless."
Nadir smiled. The conversation was going exactly the way he had wanted it to go.
"Erik was very impressed with your technique," he began cautiously, "and he thought that the cabaletta was perfection."
Christine nodded. She knew that she could convey Norma's feelings in that particular piece extremely well.
"And the aria..?" she asked, knowing that there would be a "but" coming.
"Erik liked that very much as well," Nadir was quick to calm her, "he just would have wanted it to sound a bit more – how did he put it? Ethereal? He thinks that this particular scene should have a mythical, magical quality."
"That is about the coloring of the voice," Christine realized. "That is particularly difficult to achieve without..." She bit her lip. After how she had treated Erik, she could not ask him to give her a private lesson.
"Without a teacher," Nadir completed her sentence. "But your teacher is here. Would you want him to help you? It would of course mean close proximity, which might be awkward for both of you."
Christine nodded. "I honestly don't know," she confessed. "He is an excellent teacher, that much I know for certain, and he could probably help me in no time at all. But.."
"Do you fear he would not treat you with respect?" Nadir asked.
Christine thought about it for a few moments, then she shook her head. "Not really," she told Nadir. "He seems to be so different from that terrible night, almost the way he was before..."
Before he had revealed himself to be a man, before she had ripped his mask off, before things had started to go completely downhill.
"He is trying very hard to put the past behind him and to start anew," Nadir reminded her. "Darius and I, we are helping him to adjust to this new life, where he is more out in the open than before, and where he might finally find the recognition he deserves."
"I will think about all you have told me," Christine assured Nadir, "but what if... I mean, should I decide I do want him to help me with the role... do you think he would...?"
Nadir grinned. These two were insufferable. It was obvious that Christine wanted a singing lesson with Erik as much as Erik did, but neither dared to approach the other.
"There is only one way to find out," he said, chuckling. "And you do not have to decide right away. Give it a few days. Maybe you find the right color of your voice by yourself. If not... "
Xxx
Two days later, Christine spotted Erik in a box far from the stage during rehearsals. She smiled, pointing him out to Anna Lena.
"Signor Planchet is here," she whispered to her friend.
"So he does attend rehearsals after all!" Anna Lena exclaimed once she noticed the tall figure in the box. "Maybe you were right and he was really just not feeling too well during our auditions."
They had barely finished their conversation when signor Cantucci, who was just as pleased as Christine and Anna Lena to have the boss in attendance, called the two ladies to attention and began playing the introduction to their duet.
Xxxx
Christine was happy. Erik had obviously followed the advice she had conveyed to him through Nadir. But what did that mean? Had he done so, because he felt it was the reasonable thing to do, or because he trusted her advice? Of course she could ask signor Khan, but how stupid was it that she and her former teacher did not speak to each other directly and always used signor Khan as a messenger?
Would it not make more sense if she and her Angel – Erik, that is – talked to each other directly? Christine began to think that there was a lot the two of them should discuss. But after the way she had reacted upon seeing him here, Christine was not sure her teacher would even want to talk to her. Except, as signor Khan had said, there was only one way to find out.
There was also still the question of finding the right color of her voice for the aria. Yes, that slight problem with the role would have to serve as the excuse for requesting a meeting with Erik.
Therefore, when Christine ran into Nadir on her way to rehearsals a few days later, she approached him. "Would he.. do you think... I mean.. the aria..?"
"You would want Erik to go over the aria with you to help you find that ethereal quality in your voice that you are still missing," Nadir helped her. "Am I correct?"
When Christine nodded, he promised to talk to Erik about it, and that either he or Erik would get back to her.
The next day Nadir managed to unobtrusively slip a small piece of paper into Christine's hand, when he came on stage during rehearsals to discuss with signor Cantucci that the piano had to be removed, since from now on the orchestra would accompany the soloists while Cantucci should begin working with the understudies in one of the smaller rooms.
Once back in her dressing room, Christine unfolded the note Nadir had given her. She smiled when she recognized her teacher's characteristic handwriting.
"Signorina Johannsen, you have requested a private singing lesson," she read.
"For obvious reasons, we have to keep this fact a secret, among other things, because I cannot teach one soloist and not the others. Therefore we can only meet after everybody that does not live on the premises has gone home. I must also warn you, that I will have to lock the room during our lesson to make sure nobody can surprise us there and see my mask and we have to use the room furthest away from any living quarters. I am well aware that it is asking a lot of you to agree to these terms, but rest assured that I will treat you in the most professional manner, as I have promised. If this proposal meets with your approval, meet me tonight at 9:00 p.m. in rehearsal room 3. E."
Christine smiled. He had agreed! Yes, his terms were a bit extreme, and it was not exactly appropriate to meet him alone that late at night in a room that was so far away from any other living being, and that they would be locked inside together. But he had agreed to see her! He would help her with the aria, and maybe, just maybe, they could talk about a few things. She had been thinking a lot about what Nadir had told her about Erik, and she hoped that talking to her former teacher herself, might further help her understand his actions of two years ago. Maybe all was not lost yet. Maybe they could somehow repair their relationship and be friends again.
