musicians of old

Chapter 721: The Eve of the Celebration (Part )

"Get out of the way! Let the Royal Mail carriage pass first!"

On the afternoon of the 13th, the hoarse roar of the coachman was drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the streets of San Pellegrino.

In a gilded carriage drawn by four purebred Norman horses, Janus Duke of Hollis White, a postal magnate, was studying a special issue of Southern Music with a silver-handled magnifying glass.

"Damn it, why is it so crowded? Um, this journal isn't talking about the South today?"

Its front page was printed with "Turning point in music history: Tristan and Isolde may change the form of opera art!"

Turning over the advertisement again, the most eye-catching position in the advertisement column was occupied by the Hoffman Gramophone Company: "Pre-sale of the first live recording vinyl record has started, and the first 999 copies in the world are special limited editions."

As for the advertising columns in the gaps, they are filled with title sponsorship announcements from second- and third-tier perfumers, florists, and wineries.

In fact, the old duke knew the truth at a glance: they were not sponsors of Turner Cinemas at all!

There are at least one or two layers of supply chain relationships between them and the old title partners that Carloen van Nin had negotiated with, such as Kent Motor Company, Piodoro Winery, and Gougova Luxury Group!

Want to become the direct title sponsor of Turner Cinemas nowadays? It is not that easy!

There are many large companies among these "middlemen" who are crazy about taking advantage of the popularity.

The traces left in the cracks of the advertising columns are just a microcosm. In fact, the battlefields of competition and fanning the flames are far more than what the public sees.

"Aquileia Winery bought out the naming rights for the second act 'Duet of the Night' wine in advance?"

Under the glass window of the Bluebell Café at the intersection of the Saints' Relics Memorial Square, three music publishers were looking through the business news newspapers through monocles.

A publisher with a walrus beard shook the cigar ash onto the sheet music. "The only piano score released now is the Prelude! How come they even know the name of the aria in the second act? Where did they get the inside information? Damn it, this is just a small winery, and they got the chance to get in first!"

"What?" another person exclaimed, "Piodoro Winery announced an hour ago that it had directly acquired 51% of the shares of Aquileia Winery and increased the sponsorship fee by 300%, and also won the naming rights for the core segment of the third act?"

The rustling sound of pages flipping could be heard: "They named a top-quality red wine that will be opened at the end of November 'Death of Love'!? The pre-sale quota for the New Year batch was sold out in 11 hours!? Damn, what kind of aria is this!? Why do I only know 'Prelude' so far!? "

"5 seconds, 3 seconds, or 2 seconds!"

In the empty basement rehearsal room of the Eternal Flame Festival Orchestra's resident concert hall, a multinational sales representative of the Andel Violin Butler Company is stuffing a large gold coin with King Louis's portrait printed on it into the photographer's pocket. "Two seconds! Just so that the close-up of the musicians applying our rosin can appear in the documentary "Hoffmann's Phonograph"

Before he finished his low voice, there was a sudden protest from the exploded and uncontrolled pickup electrode microphone on the ground.

“This is blasphemy!”

Under the bronze statue of the Romantic composer Lorfin, the editor-in-chief of Voice of Janus waved the headline of his own publication that day:

"Changing the name of opera to 'musical drama' is already heresy, and now they are planning to move the Nicolaus resonant coil onto the mechanical stage of classical drama to simulate the lightning of 'love's death'?"

The special music critic for "Separation" stepped forward from the crowd and showed the data with a sneer:

"This lighting design technology support solution contributed by the emerging electrical engineers association finally won 37% of the votes, 10 percentage points higher than the second place! Guess what the veteran music fans in the theaters like to watch the most?"

The current situation is that although the box office data has completely turned into a self-enclosed cycle of "breaking its own record", and the attendance rate of the live or broadcast venues is also an obviously predictable 100%, there are still many people who criticize these reactions of music fans as "absurd" -

For example, the reporter from Southern Music Newspaper who was present at the event still held up his own front page with the shocking headline:

"A four-hour musical will become an auditory torture"

Because the performance time listed on the official brochure is clearly written as 8pm - 12am, with no intermission!

There were also slogans painted on the exterior walls of many ticket offices: "The electrified opera stage is the guillotine of art!"

The real war took place in the editorial office of the Waldstein Herald. The editor-in-chief, who was recuperating from illness, struggled out of the hospital and tore up the entertainment draft written by his deputy: "Replace the title of 'The Greatest Comedy in History' with 'The Dirty Marriage of Capital and Art'! Didn't you see that the entire page of advertisements was taken up by fruit companies and car tycoons?"

While people from all walks of life were fighting inside and outside San Pereto, true pilgrims or explorers were "difficult" to cross the last three kilometers of the mountain road.

The theater is located in the free town of Franconia, north of San Perto. It is hidden in the hilly area south of the Franconia Mountains, which is covered with dense vegetation and flowers. The neat and unique walnut wall panels and golden palm leaves decorate the houses in the town, which always make the tourists who visit here pleasing to the eye. Of course, such a poetic, quiet, elegant, and even a little "far away from the hustle and bustle of the main city" free town, well, it can't be spared from the long queue of cars today!

The setting sun dyed the outline of the theater blood-amber, and at the foot of the mountain were the lights of carriages and cars that meandered for ten miles.

“Beep, beep, beep!!” “Ding-ling-ling——”

The gentlemen sitting in the car seemed to be sitting quietly with their eyes closed amid the incessant sound of car horns and carriage bells, but in fact they opened their eyes and took out their pocket watches once every five minutes on average.

Logically, this shouldn't happen.

Although the "Free Town of Franconia" is far away from the main urban area, as one of the famous tourist attractions in San Pereto, its transportation conditions are among the best in this level of town.

There is no doubt that the "culprit" that caused the crowded and paralyzed scene in front of us can only be the jubilant theater hidden by the white wall high in front of us. Oh no, the Bayreuth Festival Theater!

"I finally understand why the hospital has these strange 'warm reminders' on its posters and flyers." The elderly gentleman with reading glasses took out the folded leaflet from his briefcase again.

"Warm reminder: Summary of arrival routes. Please be sure to leave early for routes 1 and 2."

"At least we did take its advice in the end didn't we?"

The gentleman with a graceful and elegant temperament pulled the half-open curtains a little smaller.

"The temperature in late autumn drops drastically once it gets dark. Oh, it's almost seven o'clock. Who knows we've been in the car for four hours! We shouldn't be late. I see there are still a few long bends ahead."

"We did adopt it." Another person beside him sighed and put his hand on his abdomen, "But the next one... I swear, I suffered the loss of not listening to it!"

"Warm reminder: try to bring enough food with you."

A few people glanced around the carriage and found that it was empty except for briefcases, top hats, canes and other items.

The town's bakery closed three days ago, and all ovens and cooks were requisitioned for a fee to bake energy snacks for musicians and actors to cope with long rehearsals and performances.

The sound of leather shoes hitting the ground could be heard, and some people still jumped off the carriage unwillingly, walked a dozen more steps, or walked to another visible point around the corner.

But in the end, all I saw was a humorous notice posted in a pharmacy:

"The last two bottles of smelling salts are for the fainted brass players. Ladies, please use the 'mysterious anti-fainting fan' provided by our sponsor, the Gugova Group."

“How did Fanning manage to get Tristan und Isolde to this point?”

In the second-floor courtyard of a small town hotel, the figure of Marquis McAdam flickered in and out, looking down at the group of hungry travelers.

His expression was mixed.

From the perspective of an investor who is purely increasing his bets, there is nothing to worry about with such momentum. Instead, one should complain that Fanning had fallen a little short before.

But

"The Seven-Day Celebration hasn't even started yet, and the atmosphere on the eve of the celebration is already so enthusiastic. It's even more enthusiastic than the closing day of the previous celebrations. How high can the atmosphere of the Seven-Day Celebration, the final atmosphere, get?"

“Is it that the ‘turning point has not yet arrived’, or is it that now is the turning point?”

Some kind of divine revelation from "Yan", coupled with the disturbing reflection of some abnormal secret history, made McAdam ponder constantly between his brows.

Finally, his figure flashed a few times and finally disappeared in the attic of the tavern.

The next moment, he appeared without any abruptness on the jam-packed mountain road in the small town.

Like everyone else who chose to abandon their cars and walk the last stretch of the way, I headed up the hill towards the Bayreuth Festival Theatre.