Chapter 8.8 - Act 8: Lively 8 (2/2)

And the stars were shining – E lucevan le stelle.

The song which was considered to be the most famous aria of the opera, Tosca, escaped teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s lips.

“E lucevan le stelle…”

[And the stars were shining…]

Hearing the first verse, I quickly came to myself and focused.

Opera arias were special.

It was probably well-known that musicals required acting and singing to be done at the same time but what wasn’t very well-known, was the fact that a ‘musical’ was a genre that came off of opera.

That was why opera, the original, had to naturally incorporate both singing and acting like musicals. The song itself was the dialogue, and the song itself was the story.

That was why it was difficult.

Unlike art songs like lieder that only had lyrics, arias had background stories. There were other actors to share the song with and there were characters that had to give out lines.

It was important to understand the world view of the song before singing in line with it, and was different from just simply singing it.

Was that the end?

No.

In operas, there was another enemy which the singers had to face.

“Entrava ella fragrante…”

[Fragrant, she entered…]

As teacher Kwak Jungsoo slowly went through the lyrics, the instruments gave out their powerful echoes.

Inside the large pit in front of the stage, I could see dozens of instruments filling the hole. The sounds roaring out from there got louder, perhaps in an attempt to bury teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s voice.

Without falling back, the teacher raised his own volume.

An accompaniment – it was but an accompaniment. The protagonist of the song couldn’t be buried, and the lyrics had to be properly conveyed.

To achieve that, opera singers had to win against dozens of instruments all alone with their bodies.

And the teacher had achieved it.

“…le belle forme disciogliea– dai veli!”

[…the beautiful shapes dissolved– by the veils!]

With his confident, reaching voice, he set the emotions up. He controlled the strong and soft notes however he wanted and lastly, he ripped through the veils of the orchestra and conveyed the song to the ears of the audience.

Only those who could maintain the ardent expressions and emotions while defeating the orchestra and ring the hearts of the audience could be called first-class singers.

Exactly like the respected teacher Kwak Jungsoo.

“Tanto la vita!”

[Loved life so much!]

Suddenly, I felt my heart thump.

I could see teacher Kwak Jungsoo singing as the protagonist – the sole source of light above the stage, giving off a beautiful song above all sounds.

Ah.

I want to stand there as well.

Listening to the rounds of applause that seemed to resonate through the walls of the Opera Theatre,

I closed my eyes.

*

“Sir!”

After asking around, we had finally arrived at the actors’ waiting room. When I looked for the teacher by asking for the actor with his name, he soon walked out with the makeup still on which appeared quite amusing.

I waved my hands with delight and soon could see him widening his eyes.

“Ung? What?”

Seeing him like that, I grinned before explaining everything. His expression changed frequently during the whole conversation from doubt, to surprise and finally to dejection. With a hollow laugh, he opened his mouth.

“So in other words… you won the prize of that UCC or whatever, which was an opera ticket and when you came, I was the main character?”

“Exactly.”

“Well. I intentionally didn’t even tell you to give you a surprise but what a coincidence.”

Indeed, sir.

But thinking about it, it was in fact quite intriguing. Did they choose a Korean tenor because they were performing in Korea?

“Anyway, it’s good because I got to see you earlier.”

While I was having such thoughts, the teacher disheveled my hair with a smile before suddenly glancing to the side. Han Dasom who had been standing quietly quickly bowed her head.

“Hello teacher. I’m Han Dasom…!”

“…Uh, right. Han Dasom…”

Receiving the greeting, the teacher tilted his head and blinked his eyes. After a while of pondering and observing Han Dasom, the teacher finally clicked his fingers and opened his mouth.

“Ah, I knew I saw you somewhere. It was from the UCC video yeah? You were the student that was singing with him right?”

“Yes…!”

Seeing Han Dasom’s expression which became brighter for some reason, the teacher nodded his head.

“Hmm. Right… Nice to meet you and, should we first go somewhere else?”

*

Since it was nearing dinner time, we carried our feet over to a restaurant and ordered some light meals. After glancing at the waiter leaving with a menu, the teacher threw his gaze at us and asked how we had been.

After a back and forth of some talks like ‘Have you been well?’, ‘We have been well.’, ‘How about you teacher?’ and ‘Well not bad’, the teacher casually opened his lips.

“By the way, you two must have been in the middle of a date, so was it thoughtless of me to just come in?”

Han Dasom quickly gave him a reply.

“No…! It’s okay sir. Please, don’t mind.”

“Uh… thanks.”

I was watching Han Dasom’s lips which were for some reason raised bashfully when the teacher opened his mouth after placing the cup down.

“So, did you enjoy the performance?”

“Yes. You were so good.”

Seriously, it was to the point that it surprised me.

Usually, we could tell how satisfied the audience was by seeing how long the claps went on for after the arias, and the teacher received a long applause that lasted for roughly a few minutes.

‘It means that everyone was satisfied by his song.’

Feeling proud, I nodded my head when the memories of the past suddenly hit me.

Wait, although he was good, was he always this great? It oddly felt like he was better than before and… it didn’t seem to match my memories.

‘Maybe he ate something good in Italy?’

I was tilting my head in thought when he suddenly pushed his upper body out and gazed into my eyes. His faint smiling appearance filled my sight.

“Good. It’s good since you’ve watched the performance.”

“Sorry?”

He glanced at me for a while before soon tapping on the table and opening his mouth.

“You asked about ‘emotions’ on kakaotalk yeah? Opera is the best cure for that.”

Opera?

Tilting my head, I flashed my eyes wide open.