Chapter 339: A Night Talk in Bairen City
In the other half of the dormitory, a grand piano of ancient form and exquisite workmanship was surprisingly crammed in.
“You have a piano too?” Okamoto was a little surprised—he didn’t remember any Yuanlao bringing a piano privately. There were some who brought small instruments like accordions.
However, he soon realized it was a product of this era: a harpsichord.
“I bought this from Macau with my own money,” Dongfang said. “Without a real piano, this will have to do.”
The two sat down silently and poured wine. They looked at each other, seemingly not knowing where to start.
“Well, thank you for your expense,” Dongfang suddenly spoke. “Since there is wine, I’ll skip asking about tea or coffee. Bach, Mozart, or Brahms? Or do you prefer Tchaikovsky?”
“Ah? What?” Okamoto began to find that he couldn’t keep up with the rhythm of the person in front of him at all.
“Hmm? Just asking what you want to listen to. How can one eat dinner without music?”
“Well… whatever. Bach is fine.” Okamoto, amidst his astonishment, began to feel that he had found the right person.
“Alright, Goldberg Variations? Gould or Tureck?”
Okamoto had already begun to get used to this way of conversation: “The High Priestess, let’s listen slowly while we eat.”
Dongfang Ke opened a cabinet and began to look for CDs, then connected the player and the speakers. Okamoto caught a glimpse of the densely packed alphabetical index cards in the cabinet.
Clear and exquisite piano music floated from the speakers. Okamoto picked up his chopsticks and said while eating, “This private collection of yours… is probably unique in the Senate, right?”
“Actually, it’s not. The General Office and the Planning Commission have more professional entertainment equipment. It’s just that among private collections, there’s nothing better than what’s in my cabinet. I really couldn’t bear to leave behind my three-star records before transmigration, so I brought them over. The speakers were custom-built by someone.” In the quiet room, Dongfang Ke’s tone seemed to have become a bit more normal.
“Well, this is quite a treat. But these things of yours can only be listened to by yourself. You can’t let the naturalized citizens see them. Bach isn’t even a liquid at this point!”
“Ha, that’s true. Even if I played it, no one would understand. The Senate’s external propaganda is of a simple and crude style. A few old military tunes copied by the Army and Navy are enough. I’ve even written lyrics for them.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve done that too! The Navy’s warship march was simply unsingable before I changed the lyrics.”
The atmosphere became much more natural under the combined catalysis of dinner and music. The two chatted a lot about music appreciation.
Then, emboldened by the wine, Okamoto asked the question that had been puzzling him: “Why are you still living in such a small dormitory? And how come I don’t see a maid?”
“Ah, because it’s close to the office building. I don’t have to worry about oversleeping and being late—also, for a single person, the bigger the house, the more trouble it is. It needs cleaning and so on,” Dongfang Ke replied nonchalantly.
“What? A single person? You mean you didn’t buy a maid either? As far as I know, among the single male Yuanlao, the only ones who didn’t buy a maid are that… Ji Xin who protects the natives and that… that… Cui something…” Okamoto was suddenly so surprised that he became incoherent.
“Alright… don’t doubt my direction… I’m straight, not a bi-plug…” Dongfang shook his head helplessly. “As for the maid, I just randomly drew a B-class. Of course I took her, it was a subsidy after all. But I really don’t like having someone bothering me, so I sent her to the Yuanlao villa area to look after my house.”
The way this person talked about maids was completely different from the usual transmigrator otaku—Okamoto thought. Could it be that someone didn’t transmigrate for an endless supply of girls?
“Then why did you transmigrate? Not for power, not for women. Maybe in a few years, your speakers will break and you won’t even be able to listen to lossless audio.”
“Oh. Transmigration, just because I was bored. You can do it for other things besides girls. The 17th century is much freer than our time, hahaha. Besides, there’s nothing to miss in the 21st century.” A strange smile that had never been seen before appeared on Dongfang’s face. Okamoto felt it was better not to continue this topic and got straight to the point.
“So, about the opera troupe, do you have any good suggestions? The preparations are still quite difficult, we’re short on personnel!”
“Before we enter the discussion of this topic, I have a question.”
“What is your position?”
“I am the newly appointed director of the Artistic Groups Management Office—and the director of the Central Art Troupe.”
“So, what you’re talking to me about has been approved as a project.”
“Of course. A project without approval is just talk on paper.” Okamoto Shin talked enthusiastically about his plans—opera and dance theaters, ballet troupes, symphony orchestras, and so on, wishing he could replicate all the artistic groups of the old world… He was immediately interrupted by Dongfang Ke:
“Well, these are meaningless. What we lack most now is teaching staff—especially professional teaching staff. In the 1950s, China was poor and blank, but at least they had the Soviet Union as a teacher and a few returnees who had studied abroad. We now represent the most advanced productive forces and social culture ourselves. We can’t even find anyone to copy from…”
“Indeed. I’ve also looked at the resources myself. We are poor and blank in both teaching staff and equipment.”
“I’m afraid we don’t even have a modern piano, right?”
“There is a piano: an old Nieer in the entertainment room of the Fengcheng. It looks like it’s been sitting there for at least thirty or forty years. To repair it, we’d need a piano tuner.” Okamoto was a bit troubled. “I don’t have that skill.”
“The piano is not a problem. Because the harpsichord and clavichord have already appeared at this time. The latter is very similar to the modern piano. I believe we can find a tuner in Europe. If we are willing to spend more money, it won’t be too difficult to find a few technicians to replicate a modern piano based on a sample.”
“The Planning Commission has asked Kua Ke Qiong to purchase musical instruments and recruit musicians and craftsmen in Europe in the past. The instrumental music aspect should not be a problem.”
“Hmm, as for the art troupe, even Europe doesn’t have systematic bel canto training at this time. I think you need to pull some strings with Director Wu and ask the church for help, get a couple of choir members. Italian vocal music has already started at this time, so we’re at least a little better off. And that Mrs. Liu, she’s teaching music and dance posture at Fangcaodi and the maid school now. We can ask the Executive Committee to lend her to us. By the way, I wonder if that Italian, Lando, has any of his nation’s innate skill points? As for me, I can’t do bel canto at all, but I can help with playing the piano and transcribing scores. As for changing lyrics and plagiarism, that’s a standard feature. If you need it, just ask anytime.”
“That’s great! The position of deputy director of the Central Art Troupe will be yours in the future. But the problem of composition and creation is still unresolved! After all, I only studied vocal music.”
“That’s not a problem. Besides records, I also have a lot of electronic archives here, several hundred gigabytes. Basically, I have classical and modern operas, even revolutionary model operas. Of course, that’s a different art form. The resources in the Great Library’s database are probably measured in terabytes. I’m sure there are music score archives too. We can just simplify the arrangements. Anyway, in this time and space, the Senate is the source of all creativity!”
Dongfang Ke took a sip of rum as he spoke. “But a symphony orchestra is still not possible for now. High-quality instruments all rely on external purchases, which probably won’t be enough. Except for the violin, most Western instruments haven’t appeared yet at this time. We still need to go through a period of exploration to produce them ourselves. We don’t have suitable craftsmen in the country either, so we have to get them from Europe, which is a long way off. Also, we don’t have a conductor.”
“Well, anyway, what I want to do most is opera. I was worried about composition and orchestration, but seeing your private collection today, I’m finally confident! Come! Cheers!” Okamoto excitedly raised his glass and drank it down.
Dongfang Ke got up and changed the record—a selection from the opera La Traviata, “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici.” The high notes of Pavarotti and Sutherland soared in the night of this other world.
The History of Art, Volume I (Part 1): The Formation of the Central Art Troupe, published many years later, recorded the “Night Talk in Bairen City” between the founder of the Imperial Central Art Troupe, the famous conductor and playwright Yuanlao Okamoto, and the amateur musician Yuanlao Dongfang Ke. Of course, the book described how the two Yuanlao, in the simple dormitories of Bairen City, under the light of gas lamps, conceived the organizational structure of the opera troupe and symphony orchestra. Yuanlao Dongfang even played some conceived musical pieces on a simple early piano, while Yuanlao Okamoto took out the scripts he had accumulated and created over many years to discuss how to arrange the vocal parts, fully demonstrating the arduous efforts of the first generation of Yuanlao in the pioneering stage of the empire, laying a solid foundation for the great and glorious achievements of the empire that followed.
Not long after this conversation, Dongfang Ke was officially transferred from the General Finance Supervision Department and became the deputy artistic director of the Central Experimental Art Troupe. Although he had changed positions, Cheng Dong still often assigned him a pile of account books. Yuanlao Dongfang, as cool as ever, silently accepted them and continued to work for the finance and economics circle. When Okamoto asked him why he still took on this work, Yuanlao Dongfang, as cool as ever, replied, “Because the art troupe has nothing to do.” This left Okamoto almost breathless.
Although the Central Experimental Art Troupe had been established as a project, not many people were enthusiastic about it. While Yuanlao Dongfang continued to immerse himself in hi-fi and account books, Okamoto ran around everywhere to secure various resources. Fortunately, the General Office began to consider the transformation of the maid training class. Xiao Zishan saw the art troupe as a good place to settle the students of the maid academy and gave his full support. Only then did the art troupe manage to open its doors in a short period of time, settle down in the county town, and mobilize various resources.
Okamoto and Dongfang naturally contributed all their personal resources. The Planning Commission also allocated all the miscellaneous items related to performing arts in its inventory to the art troupe. In the preparations before transmigration, literature and art were not given much importance. Apart from purchasing military bugles, flutes, and drums for the army’s needs, other musical instruments were not included in the procurement scope at all. Fortunately, there were quite a few Yuanlao who could play musical instruments and had brought a few instruments with them personally.