Chapter 2- La Carlotta.

Firmin entered the main theatre and felt his jaw drop. Of all the rooms that they had seen, this had to be the biggest, and most spectacular of the lot of them.

Like in the main hall, there were golden statues placed all around the theatre. And it had enough seats to rival what looked like any other theatre in the world, why there must have been around three thousand identical red velvet covered seats in the entire theatre. The stage, which appeared to be made out of highly polished oak, was illuminated by a semicircle of torches.

André was standing beside Firmin, clearly at a loss for words. He was gazing at the orchestra pit which was just in front of the stage. There in the pit stood the Conductor, a small man around the same size as André, who also had grey hair and a moustache, only instead of having mousey features, like André , seemed to give the impression that he was a very large gerbil.

The Conductor was currently giving a talk to all of the musicians in the pit. André knew from a previous meeting with Lefevre that they were currently rehearsing for Hannibal.

He finished his talk, and the orchestra were poised and ready to start playing. André was listening intently, and so apparently was Firmin. They were taking such a long time that André turned round to ask Lefevre what he was waiting for, only to find that Lefevre was standing a good five feet away clearly bracing himself for something…

Then, without warning, both Firmin and André were struck by an ear-splitting scream, André jumped and nearly lost his balance, Firmin was completely caught by surprise and jumped backwards into Lefevre, stepping on his foot.

"There's no need to worry Monsieur!" Shouted Lefevre, over the increasingly louder screams that were coming from the stage. "It is simply our Prima Donna, La Carlotta, you see?"

Now taking another look at the situation more carefully, Firmin noticed a woman standing centre stage, holding a fake severed head, clearly…ummm, could you call it singing? at the top of her voice.

"Ummm, very talented girl!" Whispered André, as soon as the 'singing' stopped, his voice full of doubt.

"I would be grateful to have her sir; she has been our leading soprano for the past 3 seasons."

The Orchestra struck up another tune, Firmin was about to cover his ears when Lefevre stopped him.

"No need sir, it's the chorus." Firmin breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to André, who had turned a very delicate shade of green.

"I'll be eating my words will I?" Whispered Firmin to André, while the chorus roared away in the background. "Well I never thought I'd hear something so brilliantly, so unbelievably… shrill!" Firmin could not honestly say that the chorus was bad, the only downside to it was that it was being led by Carlotta, who was singing more exuberantly than ever. This made André's face go extremely pale.

"I will admit that she does need to improve a little bit, but I honestly thi…"

"She's been the lead soprano for 4 seasons André, you would have thought that she could have improved in that time." Said Firman, cutting André off, half annoyed, and yet half pleased that he had for once proven him wrong instead of the other way round.

"Three." Said Lefevre, chipping into the conversation.

"I'm sorry monsieur?" Asked André, his voice full of curiosity.

"Three seasons, but I quite agree sir, we have tried to get her to improve but…" He gestured hopelessly over at Carlotta, and her voice rang out louder and more enthusiastically than ever. The three of them winced. "But as she is the only one who is capable of being the lead soprano, you need her if you want your opera."

"But there is room for improvement, uh, isn't there?" Asked André, a note of desperation in his voice.

"Oh I'm sure she could, you may not need earplugs each time you hear her if you are lucky!" André glared at Firmin, using the situation to his advantage, so he could get his own back on André.

"Please do not worry yourself good messieurs, the chorus, the orchestra and, of course, our magnificent ballet all make up for Carlotta!" Exclaimed Lefevre, and now that they took a closer look, the ballet they saw was, there was no other word for it, excellent.

André took a step closer to the dancers, closely followed by Firmin, gazing at them in amazement, they were superb! He turned to look up at Firmin, and without words, they made a truce, that neither of them were right nor wrong about the opera business.

"Ah, Madame Giry! If I may please introduce you to the new managers, Monsieur Richard Firmin and Monsieur Gilles André." Both André and Firmin looked up at Madame Giry. "Gentlemen, this is Madame Giry, our Ballet instructor." She held out a hand and shook both of their hands in turn.

"It is indeed a pleasure, Gentlemen." She said as she was shaking André's hand. A scene which looked peculiar due to the large height difference between the two. "I certainly hope that you are up to the task…" She broke off at a warning look from Lefevre.

So you still haven't told them She thought in exasperation.

"Of running this place?" Interjected Firmin, looking puzzled. "My dear lady we have already had this discussion with Monsieur Lefevre, and believe us, we are quite capable of running this place."

I'm not sure who is going to be the most unhappy when they find out about it, these two… or him.

Madame Giry tried the best she could to keep a straight face as Firmin said all this but much to her distress, she could not.

André indeed noticed the sudden lack of colour in Madame Giry's face. "Is there some sort of illness going round or something ? Because everyone we seem to talk to looks a bit peaky." He said. Madame Giry tried to put on a puzzled face.

"I'm not sure what it is you mean monsieur." André opened his mouth, perhaps to explain what he meant, but couldn't, because Madame Giry seized his moments hesitation in order to change the subject. "We take particular pride in the excellence of our ballet monsieur." She gestured towards all of the ballet girls with her cane. André now noticed that she walked with a slight limp in her right leg.

"I can see why. They are all superb!" Exclaimed Firmin, scanning all of the ballet girls. One in particular caught his eye, a tall, beautiful girl, with long dark brown hair which was curled into ringlets. She was exceptional.

"Especially that little blonde angel!" Said André, pointing out a tall blonde girl, who happened to be paired with Firmin's dancer.

"My daughter, monsieur, Meg Giry." André blushed, though he thought he could trace a bit of pride in Madame Giry's voice.

Keen to find out who his dancer was, Firmin quickly added to the conversation. "And that exceptional beauty! No relation I trust?" Firmin waited eagerly for Madame Giry's answer.

After a little bit of thought, she said. "Christine Daae, a promising talent monsieur Firmin, very promising indeed." Something stirred in Firmin's mind at these words, it took him a moment to think of where he had heard the name 'Daae' before… Though all hopes had nearly faded, as Carlotta had yet again decided to give her best effort to the song.

Then he got it. "Daae did you say?" Shouted Firmin, almost incomprehensible through Carlotta's deafening shrieks. "No relation to the famous Swedish violinist?" His voice was growing steadily louder as Carlotta sang with all of her soul. Madame Giry needed to scream her next 3 words so Firmin could hear her.

"HIS ONLY CHILD!" The music had reached a moment of silence, and it was now possible to communicate without screaming. "Orphaned at seven, where she was brought up and trained in the ballet dormitories."

This explained a lot. He had seen a picture of Gustav Daae before, and now that he knew she was his daughter, it seemed rather obvious, she was a spitting image of him, except of course that she was a woman.

From the sound of the orchestra, it seemed that the song was coming to an end, this meant that Carlotta had to sing the best she could, so as to get a good effect for the finish. This made Madame Giry take a suspiciously long while in cleaning out her ears. Something stirred in André's mind…

"I would be grateful to have her sir, she has been our leading soprano for the past 3 seasons."

This would mean that she must want a lot of attention and be fussed over for her amazing talent, in exchange for her singing, and as if Firmin had read his mind…

"That was spectacular." He bellowed at Carlotta, clapping a little over enthusiastically, but she was too busy smiling and curtseying to really care. She clearly loved the attention. In the background Firmin saw one of the chorus girls throwing a fake vomiting attack.

"Marvellous, marvellous!" André chimed in, also clapping enthusiastically, a fixed smile set onto his face. So as to make sure Carlotta did not get too much attention, Lefevre led them over to Monsieur Reyer, the conductor.

"Monsieur Reyer, may I introduce you to Richard Firmin and Gilles André."

"Uh, y-yes, pleasure to meet you." He spoke with a slight tremble, but then he did not seem like the social type.

Carlotta was starting to look very sour. Firmin, noticing this, quickly made an attempt to give her something to be occupied with.

"Monsieur Reyer, may I say that your orchestra is magnificent! And I would be deeply honoured if you and La Carlotta could both regale us with perhaps one more song?"

Without waiting for an answer, André quickly said. "I believe there is an aria for Elissa in act three of Hannibal?"

"Thank you!" Said Firmin, and leaving them no choice, not that Carlotta really had any objections, on the contrary, she was already in position ready to sing.

A soft piano tune started to play and after a short 2 bar introduction, Carlotta started to sing…

Think of me

Think of me Fondly

When we've said goodbye

She was clearly singing to impress, as Madame Giry had become obsessed with the hygiene of her ears again.

Remember me

Once in a While

Please promise me you'll try

Lefevre, taking a leaf out of Madame Giry's book, now started to make sure that his hair, particularly on the side of his head, was perfectly neat.

When you find

That once again you long

To take your heart back…

There was a scream from everyone in the theatre, except from Carlotta…