Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The swan's song and the rise of the poenix
Roses and applauses, applauses and roses, this has always been Ryu Rumi’s world after making her debut on opera stages as a soprano at a young age. And that night wasn’t different, she basked in the applauses and grabbed the roses the audience threw at her, as she sent them kisses after kisses and deeply bowing.
But the stage lights had blinded her to a truth that to others was well known. The recent season of plays by the Honmoon Theatre didn’t do so well, the tickets barely sold, especially after the patrons of the theatre came to know of the fall of spotlight during the rehearsals, that missed the strings section by an inch, almost killing them all.
Rumi wasn’t dumb though, she just chalked the absence of the usual crowd up to the raising costs of the tickets and the disinterest for that particular opera.
Her world came crashing down that Wednesday morning when Bobby, owner of the theatre and artistic director of the HUNTRIX Troupe, called the musicians and singers in a meeting on stage to share with them a terrible news. His face was a mask of pain as he started to speak “Thank you all for coming with such a short notice. – his eyes ran through the crowd, looking fondly at each of his dearest collaborators – I’m sorry to tell you that this one has been our last season of plays.”
A buzzing of voices rose from the crowd, all the musicians and singers were shocked, they knew things were bad, but they couldn’t imagine that they were that bad. Rumi stared directly at Bobby, horror written all over. No, this can’t be true, she thought, that theatre was her home, the other members of the troupe her family, it couldn’t close, it was the only thing she had left.
“Everybody, please, stay calm” Bobby continued “I assure you that you’ll get paid until the end of the month, and I’ll send a really good letter of recommendations for each and every one of you to all nearby theatres. None of you will remain jobless” he looked at Rumi as he said the last bit, as if to reassure her, but she didn’t want to work in a theatre, she wanted to work in that theatre. She’d have rather died than leaving it behind.
And she wasn’t the only one to think this way “Is there nothing we can do to save the theatre?” a voice in the crowd asked.
“Let’s do a whip-round! Or even better, a lottery! People love this kind of stuff, I’m sure we’ll sell tons of tickets this way” the voice of the American mezzo-soprano that joined the troupe six years before, Zoey, echoed loudly in the silent room, initiating a debate between the other members.
“We could do an auction with some of our more interesting stuff or maybe offer ourselves up to do private solos for the patrons” Mira, one of the violinists, suggested.
“Or we could offer a special dinner, made by us” Baby, the most admire baritone of the troupe with a baby face, proposed.
Many and other suggestions followed, mixing together in an indistinctive buzz that made Bobby a bit uncomfortable “Stop, stop, please! Quiet!” the silence fell into the room, leaving the director space to speak “I truly thank you for all your wonderful suggestions, but it all be useless. The debts are too high and we could never find all the money in time.”
At that moment Rumi found the courage to speak “How much do the debts amount to, Bobby?”
The director didn’t have the heart to look her in the eyes as he responded “Five hundred million won” the revelation made a loud silence fall in the room, so loud that if a pin were to drop everybody could’ve heard it.
“I recommend that you come in the next couple of days to pick up your things… I’ll have your pay checks ready on my desk as usual at the end of the month. It was a pleasure to work with all of you.”
Rumi walked in the theatre’s halls like a zombie, trying to burn in her memory every curtain, every marble capital, and every parquet plank on the floor, that were stepped on by numerous artists over the years, including her late mother. Tears started streaming down her face when she reached the grand staircase that lead down towards the lobby, the memory of the first time she climbed it up as a child stabbed her like a knife.
“Oh, Rumi” she heard before being hugged from behind, Zoey was by her side and looked at her with great sadness “What a terrible tragedy, I’m so sorry. I know how much this place means to you.”
“I… I can’t believe it, Zoey. It can’t end like this” she hugged her friend tighter letting all her pain out in a tragic and hiccupping sobbing fit.
“Not all is lost, Rumi. Cheer up… maybe I can find a solution” Mira wrapped her hand around Rumi’s shoulder, her eyes filled with cold determination.
“Are you sure? You haven’t talked to your parents in a very long time.”
“If there’s a thing I know about them is that they love this theatre more than their own children. They’ll fold like pretzels to save it.”
“Great idea, Mira. I’ll also make some calls to some old acquaintance”
“Min-Ho…” Rumi’s voice trembled at the sight of the tenor who worked side-by-side with her in many performances, Cha Min-Ho, who also happened to be son of the owner and CEO of a very large and famous company. “We’ll save the Honmoon Theatre, Rumi, don’t worry” he reassured her while grabbing her hands, the warm feeling of his skin against hers made her blush and gave her hope, even if just a little bit.
That night though she had trouble falling asleep, tormented by terrible dreams in which the theatre was dissolving right in front of her eyes and the more she tried to keep it whole the faster it destroyed itself, until it collapsed on her.
The sound of the curtains opening was what woke her up “Rise and shine, Rumi. You need to practice on the piano” the sound of Bae Celine’s voice, her mentor, welcomed her as she groaned, a symptom of the not so sound night she had.
As they sat down at the table for breakfast Celine tried to make some conversation “Such a shame that the Honmoon Theatre is going to close… your mother would have been devastated by this news.”
“Well, we could still save it… if you made a donation…”
“Are you mad, Rumi? Do you really expect me to donate five hundred million won?! I’m rich, honey, but not that kind of rich.”
“But… you could help us, you could… bother some old friends of yours” the hard stare Celine gave her made her shut up instantly “Rumi dear, you really should know something about the world: when you start going around pleading for money people start to see you as a freeloader. Do you want everybody to start seeing us as freeloaders?” Rumi shook her head in response.
“Good, then go practice. You need to be in top shape if you hope to join another theatre’s troupe.”
Rumi sat at the piano for a good while vocalizing, doing scales and arpeggios, having to restart fresh several times because of the off keys caused by her not being exactly focused. And another distraction came when her phone started to vibrate suddenly, her eyes beamed in reading the message her director, Bobby, sent:
Bobby: ATTENTION, HUNTRIX TROUPE! I’m happy to announce that we’ll be performing for another season. The details on the opera and about this joyful second chance will be revealed this afternoon at 5:00 P.M at the theatre. I hope to see you all again.
Rumi glanced at the clock every half an hour or so, she wished time to move faster, she wanted to be the first one there to personally thank Mira and Min-Ho for their quick work, and when it finally the clock showed that it was four o’clock she booked it out of Celine’s estate.
“Where are you going in such a rush?” asked Celine as Rumi was leaving.
“At the theatre, it appears we’ll be doing another season of performances”
“Another season? But wasn’t it supposed to close until yesterday?”
“I know, but it seems that Bobby has found a solution. I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”
“Rumi, wait!” Celine shouted, but the young soprano was too far away already, running as fast as her legs could take her towards her car.
When she arrived at the theatre she jumped in Mira and Min-Ho’s arms “You guys are amazing! How did you managed to get such a big donation in such a short time? I want to know the details.” she exclaimed as the other two looked at each other in confusion.
“As much as I’d like to take the merit for this… it wasn’t my doing.”
“Neither it was mine.”
“Then who –” she didn’t have time to finish the sentence because Bobby waltzed on the stage seeing happier than he had ever been in years “Welcome back, HUNTRIX Troupe! I know that all of this must feel weird after yesterday’s bad news, but I’ll try to quickly explain. Yesterday evening I went to a pub to… think about how I could possibly save our theatre and a kind benefactor, that’s choosing to remain anonymous, after listening to my tale proposed a deal to me: he’ll give us five hundred million won if we perform La Traviata. And he’ll add another five hundred million if the performances are successful.”
Rumi’s eyes went wide… La Traviata was the last opera her mother sang in before dying, Violetta’s role was her birthright.
“But… since we don’t have enough singers anymore for all the major roles and the choir, unfortunately we’ll have to host some auditions to cover up the missing spots. And that’s why I can’t promise that all of you will be granted a major role.”
Rumi didn’t care if she had to fight tooth and nail with outsiders for the role, nobody was able hit the higher notes that she caressed with such ease, but if some solid competition were to show up she would have fought to the death for it.
Violetta was going to be her role, at all costs.