3Danza della morte: La Musica Vive (Halloween 2020)
Recommend you watch/listen to the following songs on Andre Rieu's YT channel for the inspiration behind this one shot featuring our favorite lovers immortal, Erik and Christine:
Ravel's Bolero
Song of Olympia (The Doll Song)
And The Waltz Goes On (composed by Sir Anthony Hopkins)
Habanera
The Second Waltz (Shostakovich)
Entered for a-partofthenarrative's Halloween writing bash for 2020!
Everything was still so surreal. What an unbelievable opportunity for him: an open audition call from the world-renowned Paris Philharmonic Orchestra, and a vacancy for concertmaster at that! Despite his self-doubts always running through his mind and gamut of health issues, let alone his actual physical appearance, Erik decided to take a leap of faith in both himself and his musical virtuosity. For Erik, this chance and opportunity would be his final act. He was dying.
His audition was flawless, as was to be expected. With a hearty applause and positive body language from the conductor (Dr. Jacques Reyer), a few principal orchestra members, and the orchestra's union representative, Erik knew the audition was perfect. Erik was thankful that the audition was completed with the panel's backs turned to him. With failing health and the mask he wore to cover the horrific deformities of his face, Erik was relieved at the blind audition.
One thing, however, shook and rattled Erik's nerve. The whisper, "He'll do nicely, my dears," from Reyer.
At the end of the rehearsal one evening before the beginning of the summer concert series, an announcement was made: a new soprano hailing from Sweden has come to join the chorus! "My dear orchestra, lovers of music, la musica vive! The music lives on with Ms. Christine Daae. Welcome, my beautiful girl!" Reyer emphatically spoke and welcomed a shy Christine Daae to the auditorium stage with applause radiating from the orchestra. Erik sat completely still and beholden completely by the most beautiful creature. "My dear, a preview of what you will provide the attentive audience for the Halloween concert this year?"
Erik sat confused. Halloween concert? Why hasn't this been mentioned before? "CARMEN!" Reyer shouted, and the orchestra rifled through their folders for the score. When did this get in here? Erik wondered. Something wasn't right, but at the same time, everything felt right when he looked upon beautiful Christine Daae. He noticed how frail she looked, almost like him. And then, she opened her mouth to sing and out came the most breathtaking music Erik had ever heard. I need more of her voice. Erik was a captive to a most ethereal songbird.
"Dinner? With you? You're asking me out to dinner?" Erik stumbled over his words as Christine blushed and turned beet red.
"I was too forward, forgive me, Erik. You don't have to if you don't want to. I shouldn't have asked," she mumbled over her words.
"N-no, no, Christine, no, I didn't mean… I would adore having dinner with you." Erik's heart skipped a beat as Christine smiled radiantly.
They had been smitten with each other for months, and now that the summer concert series was completed and the seasons were about to change, there was a lot more down time without rehearsals requiring every evening Mondays through Thursdays, with concerts every weekend. It was nice to have a break for the next two weeks before rehearsals began again… but this time, for a special Halloween Gala.
Their dinner was beautiful and intimate and quiet. Their laughter echoed through wine glasses filled with rich port during dessert when their conversation turned to the seductively strange orchestra. "Have you noticed, Christine," Erik began as the port warmed his veins, "the peculiarities of them? Not that I'm one to judge, but something just seems…"
"Different?" Christine suggested. "Almost exhilarating? Isn't that why you auditioned? For what Monsieur Reyer offers to us?"
"I'm not sure I follow, Christine."
"Erik, how do you not know?"
"Know what, Christine?"
"Immortality!"
"Immortality of music?" Erik asked, feeling his thoughts whirling. What was she talking about?
"No Erik - immortality of soul," she hushed in a whisper.
Her excited, rapid fire of thoughts came at him in the flash. He was in a daze and felt himself leave his body as the pair paid for dinner and walked slowly through the streets of Paris before arriving outside of Christine's flat. "Erik, please consider what I've told you. Neither of us has much time. And I-I…" she hesitated a moment, "and I've fallen in love with you. I couldn't imagine doing this alone. Just consider it? There's nothing else to lose as I feel both our time is near." Christine reached up and kissed Erik's lips. "Good night, Erik."
Erik laid in bed, his mind swirling over everything Christine had told him. It was all coming together and making sense. The members of the orchestra were indeed too perfect. How young they looked despite being unbelievably accomplished musicians. An unknown yet seductive lure about them all. The spellbinding power behind the music they played leaving audiences practically in trances. None of this was of this world and Erik wasn't sure whether to laugh hysterically at the absurdity of what he thought this was or whether to weep. One thing Erik was absolutely sure of: Christine was also dying. Thyroid cancer and the cancer had spread to her throat, leaving large nodules on her vocal chords. At some point soon, her voice would disappear completely, the music leaving her utterly empty.
The next few weeks of rehearsals for the Halloween Gala went by quickly, with Erik avidly avoiding speaking to members of the orchestra, and guiltily avoiding Christine and their conversation from their date. He wrestled with everything, his mind processing rather terribly the information presented to him. And the proposition from Christine. It wasn't until a week before Halloween that Erik fell ill with a fever that landed him in the hospital and an emergency appointment with his oncologist.
"Erik, I'm so sorry," said his doctor, looking over his latest test results and bloodwork. "The tumor has grown tentacles, almost like a mutated octopus around your heart. There's nothing else to do. You have a very limited amount of time."
"Are you talking about months?"
"No, Erik, it'll be a matter of just four or five weeks at the most. I'm so sorry."
Leaving the hospital the next day, Erik called Christine and they met outside a small cafe, sitting by a small water fountain.
"I'm sorry to hear this Erik," Christine wiped tears from her eyes. "But… have you considered what we spoke of?"
"How will it happen? Will it hurt?"
"I will do it, and I will be as gentle as a lamb."
The night of the Halloween Gala had arrived. The orchestra had dressed in lavish, flamboyant costumes. Maestra Reyer dorned a massive, Elizabethan-collared black cape. Erik decided to dress as the Red Death, lavishly red velvet cape. Christine, for her two featured songs, had two costumes. For "The Song of Olympia" she dressed as a cutesy mechanical doll but her chosen costume for the featured piece of Habanera was a surprise.
Applause filled the lavishly decorated concert hall; even the patrons adorned costumes of the greatest fanfare. Finally, the orchestra was ready to begin. There was something about the repertoire for this gala but a strange feeling filled the massive room. The enchantment of the evening had fallen upon the patrons. Erik knew what it would be a matter of time. Christine's performance for "Song of Olympia" was flawlessly hilarious, her acting superb and endearing. And she flirted with Erik adoringly throughout her performance. A deeper trance overcame the patrons as the waltz began. Finally, Christine's final performance of Habanera began. Erik watched breathlessly as Christine reappeared on stage dressed in a provocative red mermaid gown. Her neck bare and completely exposed, her long lines of her torso disappearing seductively into the gown, leaving very little to the imagination. Her neck exposed as if to declare: I am willing, I am ready, long live the music.
L'oiseau que tu croyais surprendre
Battit d'aile et s'envola
L'amour est loin, tu peux l'attendre
Tu ne l'attends plus, il est là
(The bird you thought you would surprise
Flapped its wings and flew away
Love is far away, you can wait for it
You don't wait for him anymore, he's here)
Erik watched horrified as Reyer sauntered toward Christine and she tilted her head back, exposing her pulsating jugular as bright white fangs descended from Reyer, sinking his glistening fangs into Christine. Her body immediately seized with rigid terror and suddenly went limp. The audience was completely entranced by the magic in the music. Christine was helped off the stage to the wing as Reyer began conducting the final piece, a finale of monumental proportions. Shoshtakovich's Waltz No. 2 began and the entranced audience was soon singing along to the melody and waltzing in time.
Christine had emerged suddenly, her appearance more youthful and seductive as Erik had ever seen of her. She brought Erik to his feet as she held him in her arms, swaying in three-quarter time to the waltz. "Trust me, Erik," Christine seductively whispered. She removed his mask as Erik wanted to stop her and hide his face. "No, love, no hiding… tonight we live!" and her newly formed fangs plunged into Erik. He gasped and clawed with panic, the world around him turning completely black.
In an instance, almost an unbearable heat coursed through his fangs, feeling something changing in his entire body. But quickly pain gave way to a new sensation of being ALIVE… REBORN… FREE! Erik gasped as his eyes shot open, seeing his immortal beloved holding him in her arms. His body was made whole, free of all deformities and free of all illness.
"La musica vive," Christine whispered, "the music will live on for all eternity, me and you, together forever. Let us rise and sing!"