"I take it" said Miss Geist icily, "that you will cease using that absurd hair dye before applying for this or any other part on the operatic stage?"
"Yes, Miss Geist" said Bernadette dutifully but grumpily. She thought her hair was fine, and her singing was fine, and everything else about herself was fine. Then Elsa began the accompaniment and Bernadette launched confidently into the aria "One Fine Day". But Miss Geist soon stopped her.
"You are singing as though this were simply a happy, optimistic song. Only in the shallowest sense is this so. Ninety percent of the audience knows Butterfly will be betrayed by the lover she longs for, and commit suicide. Your performance must convey her vulnerability and isolation."
Bernadette tried again, but was soon stopped in her tracks a second time. "Your overconfidence is as garish as your hair" said Miss Geist. "I can think of only one way for you to convey Butterfly's vulnerability. Remove your clothes. Yes, all of them."
No student yet had talked back to Miss Geist or refused her instructions. Bernadette was on the verge of it, but the teacher's piercing gaze changed her mind. She began to strip, slowly at first. But when Miss Geist snapped "Hurry!" she practically flung off her bra and panties into the wings.
Now naked, she began the aria a third time. With the eyes of all the class on her, and her shocked friend Chloe right next to her, she had no trouble feeling vulnerable. A much more shy and soft version of the song emerged from her.
When she got to the words "I, without answering, hold myself quietly concealed a bit to tease him", there was some grinning in the audience. Bernadette felt even more exposed and helpless, and the emotion in her voice increased.
At the end - "Banish your idle fears, For he will return, I know he will return" - she broke down completely so the last two notes were broken by sobbing.
"Much better" said Miss Geist, "but never allow emotion to prevent a proper performance of the music." She gave Bernadette three quick smacks on her bare bottom. The stinging, on top of her embarrassed nudity, made her cry all the more.
The class felt sorry for the weeping girl, and thought Miss Geist was going too far. But then the stern teacher put an arm around Bernadette and began whispering to her. Nobody else could hear what she said, but the student recovered her composure quickly. Suddenly, everyone's sympathy was turned to jealousy of the private attention and inspiration Bernadette was getting. "Try it one more time. You may dress if you wish" said Miss Geist.
"No" declared Bernadette, and still nude she sang an even better version, emotional but still musical, that made everyone present feel enormous sympathy with the betrayed Butterfly.
***
As the months went by, Miss Geist's unusual form of discipline created a bond among the classmates, which was clearly going to make them perform well as a group when they put on an opera as their final lesson. They came to accept their spankings as normal. One barrier was broken when a tenor, after singing Verdi's "Otello", admitted he had not worked on it hard enough beforehand, knowing what this would get him. He was the first student to be spanked in the over-the-knee position by Miss Geist, and bare. "Embarrassing but deserved" is what he and the class thought.
There was a subtle difference between the way the guys and the girls talked about the spankings they were getting. For the guys it was much more about Miss Geist herself. The women would say "I got a spanking for that" - the men would say "Miss Geist spanked me yesterday".
The girl who was most vocal in saying how good and right the spankings were, was Heidi. She was a bigger girl with a clear vocation for Wagnerian opera. She was always saying "We need a whacked behind to make us do our best!" When it was her turn to demonstrate, her resolve was put to the test.
Miss Geist had made the obvious selection, and chosen Heidi to play Brunhilde in "The Valkyrie". Jacques, a well-toned bass-baritone who went to the gym every day, was to play her father Wotan, king of the gods. It was the final scene, where Wotan condemns his favorite daughter for disobedience.
"You understood me fully" boomed Jacques. "I warned you of my rage if you failed. But no, you thought 'Wotan is weak'. A treacherous crime must be punished!"
Miss Geist gave her critique: "Your tone is strong, but I don't see your anger at being disobeyed. I don't see the need to punish." She went to the cupboard in the wings, and brought back an instrument Elsa the accompanist knew well - the cane. "Wotan always carries a staff" said the teacher, "take this one".
Then she spoke to Heidi. "This is not your fault, so I will not make you do this if you don't want to. Will you allow Wotan to punish you?"
Heidi was scared of the sight of that cane, but after all she had been saying to her classmates, she knew she had to agree. She nodded.
Jacques knew this had to be serious to appease Miss Geist. He ordered Heidi to remove everything below her waist. Then when he began again to sing the scene, he pushed her over to the lectern. At a particularly strong note, he lashed the cane across her ample bare bottom.
Heidi couldn't believe how much it stung, but she braced herself to sing her own part. As she protested that she had done what Wotan really wanted (but not what he had commanded) there was an extra desperation in her soprano voice as Jacques continued to cane her hard. She was begging to be forgiven, as earnestly as any Brunhilde ever had in the history of the opera.
Heidi was incredibly relieved when they reached the part where Wotan admits that what she is saying is true. Jacques stopped the caning and embraced her as he sang his sorrow at being forced to imprison her.
"Farewell my valiant, glorious child! Though I abandon you, whom I love so, the laughing delight of my eye, a bridal fire shall blaze to protect you." Jacques and Heidi clung to each other ferociously as the music climaxed. It was a moving performance, but the amazing thing was that 'Brunhilde' was bare from the waist down, with several stripes across her behind!
***
Clips with the music, if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aAuxoWjpVg
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTOh99f95rQ
