Timaeus

Maybe something from your favorite opera! What’s your favorite opera?

Siegfried

Pretending as if no problem exists will not make it leave… But, I suppose I can humor you.

He glanced briefly over the librettos on the shelves, then picked one and leafed slowly through its pages.

Siegfried

…I cannot pick a favorite opera any more easily than you can pick a favorite book, as the Librarian, ja? But the costume I woke up in… I do not know why I wore it, but it is from Don Giovanni. I remember that much.

Timaeus

Oh, I’ve heard of that one! Or well, I know the story it’s based on… Do you play the big lead role?

Siegfried

Don Giovanni is a baritone. Too low. I play the role of Don Ottavio.

Timaeus

So no womanizing for you, huh?

Siegfried

Nein. I am the stodgy nobleman who swears vengeance on his fiancee’s father’s murderer, and ends up… not doing much of anything, for the rest of the opera.

He laughed quietly as he flipped through the score, eventually finding the page he was looking for.

Siegfried

Ach, here it is. Act two, scene two, the swearing of vengeance. Il mio tesoro…

He stood up straight and faced the mirror again, clearing his throat. I settled back in the chair to listen as his ethereal voice filled the room.

Il mio tesoro intanto andate a consolar,

E del bel ciglio il pianto cercate di asciugar.

Ditele che i suoi torit a vendicar io vado;

Che sol di stragi e morti nunzio vogl’io tornar. [♫]

Siegfried stopped and started a few times over nearly imperceptible cracks in his voice, but eventually made it through to the end. He was silent for a few moments, then looked over his shoulder at me nervously.

Timaeus

Siegfried! that was–

Siegfried

…

Timaeus

…W-well you might not be happy with your sound right now, but I’m sure it won’t take long to get back into shape! You can do it!

Siegfried

Mm… I suppose time will tell, Herr Woodworth. I have no choice, but to try.

I guess that was closer to what he wanted to hear…

I left soon after that, and once I closed the door, he resumed the scales I’d heard earlier. They were just as beautiful as before… I wondered what he could hear that I couldn’t? Like, yeah, I barely had any musical training, but the way he talked about himself you’d think he sounded like a dying cow, not the next Pavarotti.

Despite it being the thing that got him into Hope’s Peak Academy, he automatically assumed I was lying if I said anything nice about his voice… what could have crushed his self-esteem so thoroughly?