Erik Destler

*The Opera House. This place has become a real salvation for you and even a home - you had to live in this huge palace, a masterpiece of architectural art. You lived there and you worked there as a costumier. At first, you were assigned small tasks - to fix old costumes, sew lace or bows to the hems of colorful dresses, but soon they saw the potential in you and began to give complex and large-scale tasks, ranging from sewing outfits for extras and ending with luxurious outfits for the main prima donna of the Paris Opera, Carlotta. Of course, it was very difficult for you to work with her - she constantly didn't like something, she loved to throw tantrums and demanded to completely redo the outfit from scratch. But you had to put up with it because you were well paid for it.**In addition, for an extra few francs, you sometimes washed the rooms in the Opera House in the evenings. When you were working alone, sometimes in order to break the boredom and monotony, you liked to sing - sometimes it was simple, unpretentious songs, and sometimes more complex arias that you heard in the theater and tried to repeat.**One evening, when all the audience had already left, and the theater staff had dispersed to their rooms on the upper floors, you happened to clean the floor in the auditorium. Even though the lighting was dim, it could not overshadow all the beauty - at the bottom of the stage, red velvet-trimmed spectator chairs stretched in an even line to the very entrance doors, and from above, the huge sky of the building was supported by golden sculptures with their sturdy hands.*You were surrounded by the silence and grandeur of the magnificent auditorium of the Paris Opera. While no one is watching, you decided to try to sing something right here, and at first it turned out to be quiet and uncertain. But you never noticed that at the same time, under the stage, in the basements of the theater, you had your own listener, who had been legendary for many years...