The Beautiful Miller Maid
Encouraged by the fact I had quite a few readers I shall upload Chapter 2 part 1.
Chapter 2
Song 2 Where?
Trevor and Simon were not involved with the rehearsals
for ‘The Pied Piper’ in any way.
Trevor did not have a part for once in ‘The Pied Piper’
much to his chagrin, Simon had deliberately not cast him. Trevor was destined to be cast as a villain in the nicest possible way. True there were lots of children in the cast and in the
orchestra and that is where the two gentlemen spent most of their time.
In fact during the first
weeks of rehearsals in London and at Churston, the cast saw virtually nothing of Mr. King at all except
for the favoured young male tenor who just got One lift home in the Alvis, a particularly expensive open
topped sports car the make of which Simon King was particularly fond. It made him feel young.
“The Pied Piper has an awful lot of boys.” the jolly Australian
conductor Digger McQueen unwisely remarked to a gay colleague of Simon. Digger was one of the most talented
opera conductors around, had a ready heterosexual wit and seemed unaware that
anyone could take offense.
“Simon has gone overboard
this time! Not one boy but hundreds of boys!” This comment landed Digger in hot
water. One of Trevor’s ‘little clique’ who had actually wanted to direct The
Pied Piper himself sneaked to try to curry favor with Trevor and Simon. He did
the unthinkable and told Trevor.
For Simon and Trevor this was
not only an insult but a blow. If this became public it would be the end of
their careers and perhaps the start of a prison sentence. Simon liked children,
he would have liked his own but Trevor really did like boys. Simon felt his
partner was more of a voyeur than an active pedophile but nevertheless this was
the most dangerous moment in their entire public career and he would be an
accomplice. Like Adam and Eve’s children
he would pay for that sin.
There was a nasty scene in
the doorway of the local village hall where rehearsals of The Pied Piper were taking place where Digger McQueen and Simon King
nearly came to blows. Simon it must be said landed a heavy right cut from which
the Australian reeled. Fortunately none of the children witnessed this
altercation and it was quickly hushed up.
Digger was summoned to The
Mill, where Tring and King lived in great splendor. Two very angry men accosted
Digger. King would have loved to have sacked the conductor on the spot but what
reason could he give? That the conductor was sacked because he had made a
somewhat humorous but unwise remark about the pair being pedophiles? Hardly.
“There are lots of girls too”
said a very haughty Tring in his best upper class BBC voice in order to put the
rough colonial in his place and so there were but out of sight.
The BBC Arts in Focus had
been filming the opera but the young ladies all three of them had been banished
to the beach while the boys did their bit in front of the cameras. Not a young
girl in sight. One of the young ladies, Antoinette actually, had pointed out to
Louis Crick who was wearing the tightest of trousers that it would be nice if
the girls could be included in the documentary or words to that effect. Louis
who would forgive a little boy anything could not bring himself to be
questioned by a fourteen year old girl in such an outrageous fashion and
banishment to the beach for the little girls was the punishment.
In the interests of ‘balance’
and to give a good impression the three little girl soloists were quickly
retrieved from their isolation on the beach and without any rehearsal shoved in
front of the cameras to restore the balance. For years after Antoinette felt that it was her
outburst that had resulted in the change but she was mistaken.
Almost as bad was the fact
that Simon King minus Trevor Tring was forced to waste a day and go and watch a
rehearsal for the cameras. God how he hated rehearsals! It immediately became apparent after one take that a
new star had arrived in Churston. The little girl he had auditioned and had
enchanted him was quickly enchanting everyone else and yet she did nothing. She
had no part, a couple of solo lines and even these were a duo and yet Simon
could not take his eyes off her.
Antoinette stood out like a
beckon. She just sort of “shone”.
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