"
The count sat with his chin on his hand and seemed to pay no attention
to these manifestations. He kept his eyes fixed on the stage;
but his thoughts appeared to be far away.
Christine lost her self-assurance more and more. She trembled.
She felt on the verge of a breakdown....Carolus Fonta
wondered if she was ill, if she could keep the stage until the end
of the Garden Act. In the front of the house, people remembered
the catastrophe that had befallen Carlotta at the end of that act
and the historic "co-ack" which had momentarily interrupted her
career in Paris.
Just then, Carlotta made her entrance in a box facing the stage,
a sensational entrance. Poor Christine raised her eyes upon this
fresh subject of excitement. She recognized her rival. She thought
she saw a sneer on her lips. That saved her. She forgot everything,
in order to triumph once more.
From that moment the prima donna sang with all her heart and soul.
She tried to surpass all that she had done till then; and she succeeded.
In the last act when she began the invocation to the angels,
she made all the members of the audience feel as though they too
had wings.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220