Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper by Elizabeth Kiem

Author:Elizabeth Kiem [Kiem, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61695-413-0
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2014-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

OPENING NIGHT

I watch the Bolshoi’s opening night from stage left. I sit in the director’s chair. The one that should have been filled by Pavel Vartukh.

“Dodging traffic,” cracked Yuri, tonight’s Prince, to the amusement of the guys’ dressing room.

“Flu, I heard,” said Olga with a shrug.

“Maybe you should go check on him, Lana. He might need some TLC?” That, of course, was Irina with a smirk.

The Met stagehand said he hadn’t seen our artistic director, either. “But the lady, the Arkhipova lady, she’s definitely in charge. She’s the boss. Just wiggle over here to the left, would ya? Don’t block the scene truck.”

Anna, when I found her, just waved me away, as though it were a perfectly normal event for the artistic director to miss opening night of a New York tour.

“I think you’ve done enough already to cause tension, Lana,” she muttered tersely, eyes glued to her phone. “I’d thank you to keep quiet for the duration of the performance.”

Shut up and carry on.

So here I am. Only half present. Cognizant of Tchaikovsky. Hunted by Stravinsky. Haunted also by the speculations of thirty years ago, preserved on flimsy film next door. If Marina had really been expelled from the Academy, if her mother had truly been crazy, or an alcoholic, or a spy … What does that say about the Dukovskaya legacy? What does it say about the reality now? That the Bolshoi forgives? The Bolshoi forgets? No. I don’t think so.

The Sleeping Beauty is a big hit, though Irina’s Aurora strikes me as a bit wobbly. The orchestra starts a bit below tempo, but adjusts quickly. The corps is in better form than usual. Yuri, stifling a sneeze during the bows, steps on Galya’s toe. By 9:15, it is all over.

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