Faint morning light caught my eye and I rolled over reviewing the previous day’s events. The topic of our bartered agreement did not come up again for several days. The closer we got to opening night, the more frenetic days became. At some point when the five operas were selected, the board made a decision about which order the operas would premiere in. La Traviata would premiere on the second weekend in July. Two other operas, The Marriage of Figaro and Madama Butterfly would open the season. That meant that rehearsal space went to those two operas first. It also meant Nicole had a little extra time to prepare.
Lars was feeling the pressure and had been irritable with the cast. Stefan was overly sensitive, and Nicole was frustrated with him. One of the secondary characters developed a se
