Chapter 10.3 - Act 10: D.C. 3 (1/2)
Act 10: D.C. 3
Stage.
“…”
Lee Suh-ah stood there.
In front of the spotlights threatening to blind her while wearing a white dress that reflected off the light, she stared at the dark silhouettes filling the audience seats and listened to the claps echoing out in unison.
It was a familiar scene.
“…see that…!”
“…Wahh…!”
“…Amazing…”
After giving a deep elegant bow, Lee Suh-ah raised her head back up and glanced across the audience – the students, parents, teachers and outsiders.
Both male and female, young and old clapped their hearts away as thunderous roars of applause resonated. They shouted in awe and cheered.
She was familiar with all those.
“…”
In front of the baptism of light and praise, she closed her eyes.
Prac High-achievers Concert. It was a concert she attended nonstop over the Future Middle School days and since she entered it once every semester, it was probably around 6 times.
At the start, it was thrilling.
Since she could let outsiders she had never seen before listen to her performance, it was definitely an exciting, nerve-wracking experience.
But as the number increased to two and three… and after dominating across various concours, the feeling called thrill disappeared from within her.
It was but a familiar process – a natural result that followed her song.
“…”
Listening to the continuous downfall of applause, Lee Suh-ah slowly raised her hand up. The hand that skimmed past her skirt travelled past her legs and after moving over her stomach, it reached her chest.
Thump, thump.
She could feel the soft texture of silk, and the warm skin beneath as well as the fluttering of her heart.
“Htt…”
Feeling the pleasant sense of tension she hadn’t felt after a long time, Lee Suh-ah smiled.
It felt good. The cheers ringing in her ears felt good. The claps praising her and the glad expressions on the faces of the audience that assured her of her performance felt nice.
‘Why, I wonder?’
Why did she suddenly find joy again from the familiar stage? Why did it feel so good again?
Closing her eyes, Lee Suh-ah thought for a bit with a smile.
‘Jo Yunjae.’
Was it because she found an opponent to go against after a long time? After all, she had been losing to Kim Wuju for three years straight.
Wearing a grin, Lee Suh-ah finished her greeting and turned around. After walking down the stage, she entered the corridor and stood in the area which connected the waiting room to the stage. She crossed her arms and appreciated the performances of the other students.
“…”
Han Dasom, Kim Wuju, Jun Shihyuk.
They, who descended from the stage in that order after their performances, glanced at Lee Suh-ah standing in the corridor and stood next to her without saying a word.
Because they could hear better here than inside the waiting room.
“Freshmen Tenor, student Jo Yunjae.”
Finally, it was Jo Yunjae’s turn.
The four students standing in the corridor all closed their eyes and listened. The piano fell rapidly and hearing the accompaniment that resembled the noises of a strongly dashing horse, Lee Suh-ah thought.
Elf King.
Schubert’s Elf King.
It was a famous lied – a German art song that appeared in textbooks. If done properly, this great song could immediately earn the baffled gazes of the audience.
‘If done properly, that is.’
With a frown, Lee Suh-ah folded her arms and heaved out a small sigh. It was disappointing. Although she had been expecting a fierce competition, it felt like the competition didn’t even exist from the very start.
‘Ehew…’
Heaving another sigh, Lee Suh-ah thought, Elf King – the song choice was great because it would for sure receive great reactions in concerts like these. However, she thought that was him being greedy.
In Elf King, there were four characters.
The father, the son, the Elf King and the narrator.
Due to that, the performers had to convey the conversations of these four characters to the audience by just singing, so that they could distinguish characters by just their voices.
‘It’s easier said than done.’
As she shook her head, the first verse dug into her ears.
“Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?”
[Who’s riding so late where winds blow wild?]
The first verse left Jo Yunjae’s lips. Hearing the narration part which sounded better than she imagined, Lee Suh-ah raised her eyebrows up before soon returning to her aloof expression.
Even if the beginning was good, that would be it.
Elf King was difficult because it was in the form of a conversation, and wasn’t difficult technique-wise or anything like that. Therefore, it was normal for it to be easy at the start.
The problem would come after this with the father and the son. Their conversation was the truly difficult part.
‘That’s how songs in a conversation format are all like.’
Songs connected with one wave of emotion were comparatively easier. Since it just had to be done normally, expressed using the performer’s own colours, there were only few things to be taken into account.
But conversations?
Since it was a conversation, there would naturally be more than two people and since they were different people, they had clear, contrasting emotions.
The father would be heavy and old, while the son would be light and young.
They required entirely different emotions so if it was sung like how they had always been singing, either too soft or too heavy, the song would be completely ruined.
‘So they need to all have different colours but…’
It was hard to expect that from a high schooler.
Polishing their own normal way of singing was hard enough and yet to add another colour on top of that? There would be a lack of time no matter what.
For both Jo Yunjae and herself, they were too young to even have one complete timbre of their own.
‘He would most likely sing the father and the son’s part in the exact same manner.’
And if he did, it would be impossible to tell them apart which would result in the failure of the song.
As such thoughts went across her head, the song continued on as the narration reached its last verse.
“Er faßt ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.”
[He clasps him snugly, he keeps him warm.]
‘Now would be the father’s part.’
“Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?”
[My son, why cover your face in such fear?]