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igenlodeHaving stated outright that Hertha is expected to give birth approximately 'at midsummer' (i.e. the end of June) I now need to keep very careful track of my timeline (while being very careful not to say anything else too specific!)
I want her six months pregnant at the time of the masquerade (taking place at an unstated date) and seven months pregnant for "Don Juan"; a month to stage and rehearse an entire new production is probably a bit of a push, to put it mildly, but then they don't need said production to be any *good* ;-p The opera can afford to be a bit rough round the edges, given that nobody is expecting it to be a commercial success or to run for more than one performance...
So I think I therefore probably *can't* say that the story is currently at the beginning of April, although I've been saying that it is now spring. I quite consciously didn't exactly date the fall of the chandelier, but I did have Hertha being confident enough about her pregnancy to be able to announce it prior to Christmas (despite the fact that she wouldn't be 'quickening' until four or five months; I think relying on that was more a mediaeval thing) and was mentally going for a post-chandelier September conception, hence the midsummer birth date.
I think I've currently implied a week or two between Hertha leaving the Hotel Chagny a day or so after the masquerade, and her encounter with Christine bolting out of the rehearsal (and their graveyard trip). And I've then given her a week's bed-rest and implied that the premiere is scheduled for two weeks after the middle of that week... I suspect I really need to reread the WHOLE THING (circa 40,000 words) and note down all the statements with chronological implications, in order to avoid contradicting myself :-(
I want her six months pregnant at the time of the masquerade (taking place at an unstated date) and seven months pregnant for "Don Juan"; a month to stage and rehearse an entire new production is probably a bit of a push, to put it mildly, but then they don't need said production to be any *good* ;-p The opera can afford to be a bit rough round the edges, given that nobody is expecting it to be a commercial success or to run for more than one performance...
So I think I therefore probably *can't* say that the story is currently at the beginning of April, although I've been saying that it is now spring. I quite consciously didn't exactly date the fall of the chandelier, but I did have Hertha being confident enough about her pregnancy to be able to announce it prior to Christmas (despite the fact that she wouldn't be 'quickening' until four or five months; I think relying on that was more a mediaeval thing) and was mentally going for a post-chandelier September conception, hence the midsummer birth date.
I think I've currently implied a week or two between Hertha leaving the Hotel Chagny a day or so after the masquerade, and her encounter with Christine bolting out of the rehearsal (and their graveyard trip). And I've then given her a week's bed-rest and implied that the premiere is scheduled for two weeks after the middle of that week... I suspect I really need to reread the WHOLE THING (circa 40,000 words) and note down all the statements with chronological implications, in order to avoid contradicting myself :-(
