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Notturno Veneziano

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Speaking of Venice:

About two weeks later the Venetian Holy Office reinitiated a proceeding that, in an earlier time, it might well have forgotten: the case of the silk worker Achille Rubini. On 31 July [1587 -- Marcius] he was executed by drowning. On the same day five women -- Laura Spadoni, Orsola Bortot, Valeria Brugnalesco, Splandiana Mariano, and Elisabetta Giantis, having been found guilty of witchcraft -- were publicly mocked, chased, and whipped, as they stumbled during a forced run from the Rialto to the piazza San Marco, where they were put on display.​

--John Martin, Venice's Hidden Enemies: Italian Heretics in a Renaissance City, University of California Press, 1993. P. 222.

Must've been one busy day in July.
 
Frau Helga takes off my mantle and stockings, makes me lie on the massage table. She spreads to cream expertly on my body, and starts massaging me. This has never happened before, Frau Helga performing massage, only the physiotherapist does it. My body becomes warm, my body becomes warm, she covers me with a warm bathrobe, my feet with a sponge just removed from the radiator.

I notice that she is looking curiously at the collar with the jewel, my gift from the Countess. Her gaze betrays to certain fear, as if they were a magical talisman. Maybe that's why she did not give go beyond caresses during the massage? Or now this is the sign that I now belong to the Countess?

'Take this, I'll wake you up at rehearsal time.'

I lie down on the little bed next to her office, kissing me on the cheek.

_____________________________________________________________________

Monday midday

Frau Helga wakes me up, gently shaking my right foot, bringing me back to the world of the living after a restful sleep. I stretch out my body lazily, easing my muscles, gently exercising my back.

'Up, up. It's time for lunch. Get some clothes on, put on the new body that's on the armchair, and the shoes.'

'A new body?'

'Look.'

On the armchair I see a black one-piece body laid ready, obviously a special fabric, it gives off no reflections. I must wear it just as it is, on my own naked body. It has a deep-cut back without any zipper, through this I step into it. It adheres to my body like a second skin. The shoes are surely the ones I wore last night to dance for the Countess, also woollen leg warmers. I put on a flannel shirt with large colored squares so I can move around the theatre and get to the canteen.

'Ah, before you go to lunch I have to tell you there are some changes ...'

'Why? Which?'

'Forget Zenobia, you’re going to start immediately rehearsing for a new ballet: Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev. You shall be Juliet - and you'll dance naked.'

‘Juliet naked? In front of an audience? But how naked?’
'Naked naked. You’ll be covered only by a plaster stuck down there.’

I don't know why, but this is starting to worry me.

‘You can have your smartphone, I had to turn it off because your boyfriend kept calling every two minutes.'

'Poor Vio, we were supposed to have dinner together, and then go to the Carnival.'

'Read the choreography plot here.'

"Romeo and Juliet: the crucifixion of a timeless love. The crucifixion of an impossible love is about to take place. The eyes of the spectators fall on the body of the prima ballerina lying on a pile of wood. This is the tomb of Juliet, and of a love denied by society and by the sovereign law of hatred. In the thundering silence of amazement, the lifeless limbs of the young lover are hoisted on a symbolic cross made of poles and supported by dancers, and so she leaves the stage. The drama is completed, it leads into the finale, the bodies of Romeo and Juliet lie lifeless at the foot of the stage that forms their tomb. The audience observes, shocked ... "

Oh my God, crucified - naked? On the stage? Here? No, no! I can’t take this part ... '

'Don’t be stupid. Think about your career, it's the chance of a lifetime - prima ballerina! Think about the triumph you'll achieve, all the headlines: ‘Juliet crucified naked on the stage of La Fenice, audience goes wild, applauds for over half an hour!'

'And’ll we rehearse here, with a whole mass of people milling around, staring at me naked?'

'No, you’ll do the rehearsals in the old Teatro del Ridotto (Studio Theatre), it’s been closed for some time. And you’ll be dressed during the rehearsals, so will the corps de ballet. The mise en scene will be a new creation, very modern.'

'But why must I take this part? I'm ashamed...'

‘You’re ashamed, are you? Take a look at these!’

She hands me an envelope full of photos ... they’re of me, the photos taken while I was dancing for the Countess.

‘Well? You're the only one who can act such a part – so uninhibited.'

'In private ... but in public, it's another thing...'

'Do it as if the audience doesn’t exist, concentrate on yourself.'

'And will Romeo be naked?'

'Just a thong on his package.'
 
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