Still Life by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Still Life

Page 132

persuades her to stay because this will make Robert pay less attention to Christine while André is present.

At a masked ball, various romantic liaisons are made. André and Christine declare their love for each other and plan to run away together. Marceau pursues Lisette, and the jealous Schumacher is upset. Robert and André come to an argument over Christine. In the secluded greenhouse, Octave declares that he too loves Christine; who is now having doubts about André, and they decide to run away together. Schumacher and Marceau, who have both been expelled from the estate by Robert after a fight over Lisette, watch Octave and Christine in the greenhouse. As in Beaumarchais's “Marriage of Figaro,” the literary basis for Mozart's opera, they mistake Christine for Lisette because Christine is wearing Lisette's cape and hood. Octave returns to the house for his coat and hat, where Lisette begs him not to leave with Christine.

Breaking his promise to Christine, Octave meets André and sends him out to Christine in the greenhouse, lending him his overcoat. When André reaches the greenhouse wearing Octave's coat, Schumacher mistakes him for Octave, whom he thinks is trying to run off with his wife Lisette, and Schumacher shoots him dead.