Chapter 7 – Meetingthe Company

Come scolio – Cosi fan Tutte

I slept hard.  When I woke I found myself alone andnaked in the bed.  I looked at theclock: 9:47 AM.  Wow, I slept a longtime.  Where was Emmy, I wondered?  I got out of bed and grabbed my robeand went into the living room.  NoEmmy.

I walked over to the littlekitchen.  There was nothing there;no food, nothing.  I walked backinto the living room and plopped myself on a chair.  We have a 1:00 afternoon rehearsal, I thought.  Then I heard someone at the door.  It was Emmy.

“Hi, Good morning.”  I said.

“Hi.”  She responded, a little cold.  “I went for a walk. I found a really nice little bakery so I bought us both a pastry andsome mango juice.  I hope that isok.”

“Yeah, great.  Thanks.”

She handed me the bag with thepastry and the bottle of juice and walked towards the bedroom.

“You want to eat with me?” I calledafter her.

“No, I have already eatenmine.  I need to practice.  I hope that won’t bother you.”

“Not at all.  You use the living room.  I need to get dressed.”

She emerged with her viola case.

“Thanks.”

I watched her as she went to setup.  Something wasn’t right. Shewas looking away from me.  “Emmy,are you ok?  Are you mad at me?”

“No, of course not. “ She saidcoldly.  “I just need to practice.”

I sighed.  “Of course.”

I retired to the bedroom and Iclosed the door.  Soon I heard themost beautiful string playing I had ever heard.  She was not just good. She was amazing.  She sangon her viola in a way I could not sing with my voice.  It brought tears to my eyes to listen to her play.  It was from the heart.  I sat there on the bed listening to herbeautiful playing and thinking about her. She had gotten under my skin. I really liked her.  But shewas distant this morning.  She wasembarrassed about last night I surmised. I should have expected that. She has not had much experience in relationships and I came on toostrong and it has freaked her out. My heart felt sick.  I saton the bed listening to her play and felt tears brimming in my eyes.

I jumped from the bed.  “Don’t be silly,” I thought.  And so I got dressed.  I resolved to dress conservativelytoday.  This would be my firstmeeting with the company, and there was no reason they had to peg me as a slutthe very first day.  I’ll gobraless another day.  I dressed ina pretty light skirt and loose blouse – with panties and bra and then cleanedmyself up in the bathroom. Afterwards I just sat on the bed and listened the Emmy play theviola.  I was entranced with herplaying.

After about an hour or so, shestopped and there was silence.  Myheart started pounding.  “This iscrazy,” I thought.  “I’m actinglike I am in love with her and I just met her”.  But we needed to clear the air and so I took a deep breathand walked out into the living room.

I stood and watched her finish packingup.  When she had closed the caseshe looked up at me.  “You playbeautifully.”  I said, thinkingthat didn’t really describe it.

“Thanks,” she said dismissively.

“No really, you are amazing.”

She smiled, then she looked away.

“We should go get lunch.”

Silence.

“You go ahead, I bought anapple.”  She said at last.

Silence.

I took a deep breath.

“Emmy, there’s something going onbetween us this morning.  Can weclear the air.  Are you angry at mefor last night?”

She looked away, “Not angry…”

“Then what?”

“I… I don’t know….”

“I know.”  She looked at me with a quizzically.  “I scared you.”

She looked down.  I hit the nail on the head.

“I came on too strong maybe.  I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry, I am aconsenting adult.  I could havesaid no.  And I think you wouldhave respected that.”

 “Look Emmy,” I came to her, but not too close (I didn’t wantto scare her away anymore.)  “Iwant to say something – ok?”

She nodded yes.

“I… I really like you.  You are a remarkable woman.  It was such a wonderful gift to havebeen able to spend last night with you and share with you like we did.  If that is it between us, I will alwaystreasure the brief time we spent together.  But I still hope we can be friends.”  She looked like she was going to saysomething but I went on…

“let me say something else.  Just because we had sex last nightdoesn’t mean that I expect that we now have an exclusive relationship.  If you are not ready for that or if youdon’t want that ever I am fine with it. I am not sure I am even capable of an exclusive relationship, to tellyou the truth.  So there is noexpectation on my part.  Also, Iknow from what you told me last night that you have not had many relationships,”  My tone was gentle.  “And I understand that you might not beready for everyone to know what we did together last night or to know that youare a lesbian.”

“I am not a lesbian” she whispered.

“Ok, well even so that is what we didlast night.  Look, the point is Iwill not out you.  What weshared is totally between us and it is no one else’s business and I will nevertell anyone else about anything that we shared or did or talked about lastnight.  So, whatever you wantothers to know about you is completely up to you.”

She looked up.  She was crying.  “Thank you.”  She whispered. “I guess I am confused.”  Istarted crying.

“I’m sorry, if I pushed you fartherthan you wanted to go last night. I didn’t want to hurt you in any way.”

“Stop apologizing” we laughedthrough our tears.  She opened herarms to me and I took her and held her and we wept together.

She spoke to me in a whisperthrough her tears, “I don’t blame you for anything.  Last night was amazing for me.  I loved every second of it.  You didn’t push me any farther than I wanted to go.  I wanted to go everywhere you tookme.  Thank you for being myfriend.  I want us to be specialfriends.”

“Me too,” I said.  “And we don’t ever have to have sexagain if you don’t want.”

“Why not,” she giggled, “I likedoing myself, but sharing that with you is a whole lot more fun.  She blushed.

I bent up and kissed her in thelips.  She returned the kiss.  It was deep, long and passionate.

After a while of kissing andholding each other I said, “I want you to be the one that sets the boundariesfor us.  Whatever you want is finewith me.  But we are about to go torehearsal.  We are going to be indifferent groups.  So I need toknow from you what you want from me.”

“Ok.  Let me think about it.”  She kissed me. “You are a special friend.”

I smiled and kissed her again.

After a little while we decided togo together to get lunch.  It wasabout noon.  We left our bags andsuitcases in the apartment and ventured out.  Neither of us could speak Spanish.  Luckily we didn’t have to go very far.  The opera house was just across fromwhere the apartment building stood. So we wandered around outside together stopping at a couple outdoorshops.  I went over a newsstand andsaw there an English language daily paper.  I picked it up and looked at the man and said slowly,“QUANTO CUESTAN EL…….  Ah…. EL PERIODICO?”  His response: “venticinqbolivare..” wasfast and pointed.  I had to ask himto repeat himself and finally I gave up and handed him a 100 B note.  She gave me a nasty look and then gaveme two handfuls of change.  Emmywas laughing at me.  “I couldn’tunderstand what he was saying.  Hespoke so fast.”

We found a lovely outdoor café andhad a seat.  The very friendlywaiter could speak English - we were both relieved.  We ordered a light meal with plantanos and beans and then welooked at our watches and set off for our first rehearsals.

As we neared the stage door Emmyled me around to the side of the building where we were alone and then turnedto me.  “Abi, thanks for lastnight.  Sorry I was weird thismorning.”

“Don’t apologize for your feelings.  A friendship can only work if bothfriends can be honest with each other about how they feel.”

“Ok. Thank you for last night.  It was amazing.  No one has ever loved….. ah… made mefeel like that before.”

“That’s how I feel about you.  And you are an amazing violist, I lovedlistening to you play this morning.” She looked like she was going to dismiss the compliment (typicalorchestra player).  “I mean it,Emmy, listening to you made me cry.”

“Really?”  She seemed surprised. 

“You so deserve this job, you aregoing to be fantastic.”

She smiled, “thanks.”  Then she kissed me gently on thelips.  “Thanks.”

I squeezed her hand, then let it goand then we walked into the stage door.

“Have a great rehearsal,” I said.

“You too.”  And with that she joined a violinistthat had just come through the door and I watched them both walk down the stepstowards the pit until they were out of sight.

“I am one of the young artists,” Isaid to the guard.  “Where do Igo?”

He didn’t speak English.  Now what?

Just then Kristen entered throughthe stage door.  She spoke inSpanish to the guard and then turned to me, “Welcome to Caracas, Abi.  Follow me.  I’ll show you where to go.  Did you have a good trip?”

“Yes it was fine, no problems.”

“Good.”  We rounded the corner and up ahead was a large rehearsalroom. “Now, when we met in New York I offered my apartment penthouse.  Do you still want to live there?”

“Yes, I was counting on it.  At least at first.  If that is ok.”

“Yes, that will be fine.  The rest of the groups in thatPenthouse are orchestra members, and they are a little odd.  So it will be good to have a singer.”

“All women?”

“Of course not.”  She seemed surprised at the question.  “There is a married couple, a singleguy and me and now you.  I willtell Pedro to move your things to the penthouse.”

I wanted to ask her aboutEmmy.  What about Emmy?  Where would she be living?  But I resisted the temptation.  I was sure the orchestra would takecare of her somehow.

“It will be nice to have you livewith us.”  She smiled.  “By the way, you look good today.”

“Thanks,” I smiled. 

With that we walked into the chorusrehearsal room.  There were anumber of people milling around.  Isat on one of the chairs.

“Hi, I’m Jennifer,”  I looked up and a pretty petite andbubbly brunette was smiling at me. I took her hand. 

“I’m Abi.”

“You’re the new girl.  That is great.  We soooo need you to be here.”

“How long have you been with the company?”

“Oh, since the season started lastfall.”

“Was there someone who left?”

“Didn’t you hear the story?”  She seemed both amazed I hadn’t alreadyheard it and at the same time anxious to tell me.

“Ah, no, what story.”

“Oh, well, the girl who you are replacing,Kathy, was very religious and she couldn’t deal with some things, like… “ (shestarted to whisper) “the maestro really likes young chorus girls and he likesto touch us.”  Back to her normalvoice, “Kathy couldn’t deal with that. She would push his hands away and then he would get mad and it was justreally hard for her.”

“Well, I know about his wanderinghands,” I said softly, “I have already experienced that at my audition.”

“Most of us did.  So did she, but she was so naïve shedidn’t get it.”

I leaned over and whispered, “doeshe take those liberties with the orchestra members too?”  I was thinking of Emmy and how shewould not be able to handle that I was sure.

“Oh no! Orchestra members areharder to come by and he has to have a different kind of relationship withthem.  I have heard about himhaving affairs with like the old oboe player and a violinist in the past but hedoesn’t touch them like he does us, on a regular basis.  Like at every coaching.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“I saw what happened to Kathy whenshe resisted.  I figure it is partof the business.  He doesn’t sleepwith us he just likes to touch and look and… “ whispering again, “he reallylikes the girls to go braless.” She reached up and bounced her breasts to make the point.

“Yes, I heard.” I giggled.

“From Kristen.” 

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Kristin likes the girls to gobraless too.”  Whispering: “She’s alesbian.  And she makes passes atthe girls.  But if you aren’tinterested she at least will respect that and not push it.  Some of the girls have been with her.”

With that she started pointing outsome of the girls who she thought had had sex with Kristin, but before shecould finish the room was called to silence.

Kristin and Marco, thechorusmaster, called the meeting to order.  I was introduced, but he didn’t dwell on it.  “This is Abi, our new soprano, youngartist.”  “Welcome Abi.”  The end…  I was relieved actually.

They were in the midst of Cosi,which has a small chorus, but rehearsals were starting for Traviata!  I was so pleased. I already know thatone.  The last two opera of the seasonsI was told would be Elixer of Love and Turandot.  Wow, Turandot!!! That is one of my all time favorite operas, I was so excited to hearthat.  But today – Traviata.  So after this brief meeting we plungedinto chorus rehearsals.  Since Ialready knew it I was able to stay on top of it really well.

Afterwards Marco spoke to me andwas impressed that I had already learned the score.  I almost told him I had just performed it, but then Ifigured “let him be impressed.” Kristin called me over and gave me a 2-week schedule, which includedlesson times, and coaching’s with her and with Maestro.  Also on the schedule were chorusrehearsals and young artist meetings. We would be doing some scenes and we would also have the opportunity tocover some of the leads, but would probably never get to sing those parts onstage.  That was fine with me.  I understood that.  The point of having principal covers inopera is different from understudies in theatre.  Covers just step in for rehearsals to allow the principal torest his/her voice, or will stand in if the principal is not yet arrived (whichis often the case here in Caracas). Maybe, I thought, they will assign me to cover Liu, that would be soooocool!

“So, right now you need to reportto costumes to be measured.  Thenmeet me in my studio and I’ll take you home to meet the rest of the group.”

“Your studio?”

“Right around the corner.  And the costume shop is in thebasement, right next to the pit. They are expecting you.”

I headed downstairs, and then downa long corridor lined with orchestra cases.  The orchestra had just been released.  I recognized Emmy’s case.  I paused.  “Should I wait for her, or… not.  I promised her I would let her set the boundaries……  I won’t wait.”

I started to move on.

“Abi, hi.”  I turned around to see her smilingface.  I melted.  I felt like I was in high school.

“Hey, how was it?” 

“Fine, I’m sitting in the back ofthe section for the rest of Cosi. Then I’ll move up to my chair in the first stand when we start the nextopera.”

“Traviata.”

“Ok, cool.  I have heard of that.”

“I….” feeling self-conscious, “Iwas heading to the costume shop to be measured.  Then I am going to my new place with Kristin.”

“Who’s Kristin?”

“She’s the main voice coach andaccompanist.  Where are youstaying?”

“I’m not sure.  I may be squatting with a couple of theother players until I can find a place.”

“Oh.”  I felt guilty.

“I’ll be ok.”  She must not have been convinced.  “Really, Abi, I’ll be fine.”

“They must deal with chorus andorchestra differently.”

“Yes, I am sure they do.  I have colleagues.  Look orchestra players look out foreach other.  I promise I won’tsleep on the street.”

I giggled.  “Ok. Ok.”

“When I get settled I’ll invite youover.”

“I can hardly wait.”

She bushed.  She rubbed my arm.

“Have a nice night.  See you tomorrow maybe.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”  I smiled.  There were too many people around for any more physicalaffection so I just patted her arm and walked past her.  As I did she whispered, “dream of metonight.”  I whispered back, “onlyof you.  Dream of me.”  She blushed again and responded, “I won’tbe able to avoid it.”  We lookedinto each other’s eyes and then I moved on to the costume shop.

An portly elderly lady who spokebroken English ran the shop.  Shehad me undress to my bra and panties (I was glad I had worn them today).  She measured me up and down and sideways.  Every possible measurement of a woman’sbody was taken including hat and shoe size.  Height 5’4” Hips 36; bust 34; waist 27 and on and on.  She seemed rather unconcerned thatpeople were walking in and out of the shop during this procedure.  So here I was standing in my underwearand men and women were coming and going as if this was a bus stop.  Well this must be the big time Ithought.

When I dressed and returned throughthe corridor Emmy was gone.  INfact there was no sign of any of the orchestra members.  But I knew they had a performancetonight of Cosi so she probably ran out for supper and would be back.  Kristin was going to skip the showtonight and asked me to come to the house with her.  “You can see the show over the weekend.”

I agreed.  So we climbed into Kristin’s Renault and we were off.