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27 (II).

The song the orchestra plays as an 'Overture' is Opus 3 no 6 in A minor, by Antonio Lucio Vivaldi. the second one, always by Vivaldi and the real soundtrack for this chapter, is called La Follia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8zxoEoA_Q

Standing calm and composed in front of his seat in the stalls was proving to be pure torture for Five: he and his siblings had to play the part of the trophy sons and daughter while their Father shook hands, greeted important people, generally showed them off to the incoming crowd presenting the Umbrella Kids like the solution to every single problem which have ever existed; Allison was adoring it, basking in every little sign of attention from anyone even if with a sprinkle of frustration, since everyone was calling her Rumor, not by her given name. His other brothers were faring as their usual, Luther with his handshakes and general appearance of the ideal superhero, Klaus winking at some youngsters and attempting not to show too much the anguish the ghosts that probably were haunting him in that same moment caused him, Diego strenuously trying to make a better impression than Luther and finally Ben, nodding to strangers, hands crossed behind his stiff back and just a hint of a nervous smile on his lips. That he didn't love celebrity had never been a mystery to anyone, but inexplicably he had become silent, reserved, even wary as of late.
Five spared a thought for Vanya too, his secluded sister that the entire world didn't know existed, guessing she would have looked beautiful in a dress of her choosing (like the one which have been granted to Allison), and enchanted by the magic of the Theatre, ecstatic to see her new idol Marben play on the stage and maybe daydreaming to become like her, one day, when majority would have rendered her choices indisputable.
As for himself, Five had only one thing in mind: lay his eyes on his girl and watch her play all night long. He was shaking strangers' hands, offering two-finger salutes to the cameras and smirking here and there looking the part like his siblings, but his mind was completely elsewhere.
And finally, finally the moment to stop the inane small talk and sit down came, the lights of the Theatre dimmed down and in a gradually waning murmur the wealthy audience his Father had gathered fell silent. But instead of his desired vision, Five got the Headmaster. It made him cranky to no end.

"Good evening everyone" said Mister Pembroke in his microphone, and Five groaned aloud, leaving his thoughts free to wander; not even the murderous look Sir Hargreeves threw his way convinced him to behave, engrossed as he was in thinking of his girlfriend and being inpatient to see her again, even if from afar. He got himself so hyped up with thoughts of Marben that he didn't even notice Pembroke had finished his speech until everyone in the stalls started applauding enthusiastically: then he felt like falling out of a trance and automatically joined the applause, only to stop mere seconds later when the light went completely off and then turned on again, to show the curtain raised and an orchestra of strings and only one harpsichord peculiarly arrayed onstage.
'Shit, she's been there all the time!' he thought shifting on the edge of his sit and applauding with enthusiasm along with all the Theatre, this time. An old man with thick and stringy gray hair made his appearance from somewhere behind the scenes, bowed before the public and then turned his back on it, as if done with paying them attention for the evening. The man lifted his arms and the audience fell silent so swiftly it felt surreal; the musicians, instead, lifted their instruments in perfect coordination. And from them on, no matter how frantically Five looked between the rows of violinists to find his favorite one, the music was the absolute protagonist of the moment.

It didn't take long, however for Marben to clearly show up. She was First Chair, after all, and so she was seated at the tip of the right wing, directly near the Conductor, eyes glued to the man's movements and fingers flying on the violin's fingerboard in her first solo. The ever present energy and passion when she played made Five smile and breathe in deeply, like he really was free to do it only when he was in the presence of her passionate spirit. Now that he finally knew where exactly Marben was and that she was doing what she was born to do, he could relax and be happy, watch raptly. The music went on virtuously and solemn, every new solo getting more intricate than the latest, Marben proving to be an artist each time; before Five could tell, the second movement took over the first one, slow, melancholic and played only by strings, the first violin as the main voice and the others as a soothing accompaniment. Five could feel the vibe around himself change alongside with his mood: suddenly it was like in the Theatre everyone was broody, pensive, holding on an unnamed, feeble hope. And then the final movement caught them all by surprise, snatching them out of their beautifully sad dream with a pressing rhythm and a lively melody, Marben's fingers working quicker and more daring by the minute, the other strings answering with cadenced, stern counterpoints. Like a fight between propriety and fantasy.

It was complete darkness again, once the main voice and the orchestra had found a deal to play the same theme in their own way and ended the Concerto. People around Five started applauding fervently, and when the lights turned on again not a single musician was in sight, all of them hidden behind the lowered curtain. Five too applauded, but now that Marben wasn't in sight anymore his attention wandered between the stalls: his Father's rich affluence was laving delighted comments on his girlfriend - which made him enormously proud and even preen a little - and his siblings looked surprised and awed by how the evening had turned out.
"Hey, man!" Klaus called him from his seat, never rising his eyes from the joint he was rolling "Your cutieboo, there, really is an awesome possum!".
"He means Marben is totally rocking it" translated Ben, seated between the two and having taken pity of Five's confused and a little contemptuous expression; Five frowned.
"Yes, she is. But thanks" he said to both his brothers, and then, to Klaus "And put that away, unless you're gonna sold it to someone and devolve the profit to the cause!". As the lights went down again, the sound of Klaus' sputtering could be heard from whole rows of distance.

In the sudden and blinding light roused on the stage, this time, only a handful of musicians made their appearance: Marben and her cousin Myery, each holding a violin, a blonde girl - who Five strongly suspected being the girl currently dating Vanya - seated on a chair and bolstering a cello, another blonde girl with short and artfully disheveled hair seated in front of the harpsichord, and at last, surprisingly, the Conductor, sporting an ancient-looking sort of guitar. In the respectful and even a bit astonished silence of the audience, the old man lifted his head in a deliberate nod and when he lowered it, the sonata began. And again, it was a vortex of such Carthusian musicality that Five couldn't find the right words to describe it in his mind, but tried nonetheless. In the beginning the music had been slow and lazy, almost sounding bored, but in the bat of an eyelash had become incisive and extremely rhythmic, and after that an amalgamation of virtuosities from all the instruments together. The sonata was a string of variations on a single theme, played in crescendo or diminuendo, jesting with tonalities and changing tempo, agogic accents, generally sounding like a continuous improvisation but too cohesive among the musicians to really be so. Once again, Marben was leading with the main voice - to which Myery's entwined artfully - and the others adapted diligently, the Conductor for now downgraded to a simple supervisor. A couple of times Five thought the exhibition had ended, for the quintet paused for a long moment each, just to resume the first time with a masterly crescendo that evolved in a variation written specifically for the harpsichord, and the second by a bold experiment involving hands pressing on the fingerboards of the strings and bows going up and down furiously, which made the stings give the rhythm with a gritting of horsehair on thin metal while the melody was left to be played in the background by the ancient guitar.
From his seat, Five could see they were enjoying themselves, playing this masterpiece of frantic music. Marben especially was radiant, she kept smiling uninterruptedly, ant the impish smile she and her cousin exchanged right before starting to produce every gritting sound a violin was capable of, had had Five's heart bursting with joy. His love was loving it, and so was he.
The sonata ended as fast as it had been enthralling: one moment the musicians onstage were playing, and the next darkness had fallen. This time, the audience went berserk, and Five did too.  

A/N: What can I say? THANKS TO YOU ALL!
I'm so grateful for your support, it is an immense gift in this dark time in which I'm not allowed to see my family or friends...you're keeping me company. I love you all. So please, keep staying safe, ok?

PS: Have a great Worker's Day (or May Day, whatever you're used to call it)! Celebrate the contribution you are bringing to the society and the world, be you doctors, housewives, lawyers, heads of states or mothers, dads, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles or aunts, children. You are all precious.