Blog : A night at the Opera

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10/18/2023 6:56 am

A night at the Opera

“and second place ladies and gentlemen goes to …………………..The Gelderland Institute and so first place goes to The Hanover Voice Choir. Congratulations to you and a round of applause for all our wonderful groups”.
There was much clapping and whooping from amongst the audience and the contestants revelling in their success and from the competition finally coming to an end. Hours and hours of practice for this one moment could now be put to one side and people could relax and take stock. However not everyone was thrilled with their performance. Whilst 2nd place was no disgrace in this high level competition, the girls from the Gelderland Institute did not share the euphoria that was in the room.
One girl, especially was down cast and almost tearful as the choir started to assemble for the ride home…….no celebrating or partying with the other choirs for them…and their lead soprano, Famke knew the consequences of failure for her and perhaps some of the other girls.
The Gelderland Institute was a strange and somewhat secretive college for girls from all over the Netherlands and alongside their academic pursuits, maintained a leading and highly polished choir that was feted across Europe as the people to beat when it came to competitions. The competitions were held each month or so on the circuit and Gelderland always featured and were favourites to win. What drove that pursuit of perfection was not obvious to all.
Most people assumed that like many leading colleges, once a dominant position was established it would naturally attract the better talent from the are and further afield, which coupled with excellence of the tutoring, would ensure the legacy of success would continue. What people did not realise was that, beneath the surface, the Institute was in fact a society based on female slavery maintained with ruthless and cruel discipline.
Take the costumes they wore when competing. Long pale blue classically cut gowns made from the finest cloth, long flowing sleeves, high collars and full floor length skirts leant the choir and almost ecclesiastical look, like the finest church choirs one finds across the country. These were the public garments for appearances in the competitions and when going about their daily lives in public or if guests were expected at the Institute.
Behind closed doors, the costumes were very different and designed to display the slave girls to their best. The dresses they wore were still pale blue in colour and they were also long however they were cut much tighter around the waist before billowing out to the floor, the skirts were slit in several places so that when the girl walked her legs would be visible and most noticeable was the corset top which held the girls upright in posture but also left the breasts completely bare.
Each girl also wore a leather collar with clamps attached to short chains that could be and were often attached to the girls nipples. As well as naked breasts, underwear was forbidden and so the girls were naked from the waist down as was obvious as they walked about and the slits in the dress exposed them to whoever was inclined to look. When a girl had her nipples clamped, she also wore a jewel thatched to her clitoris by a short clip, showing those who knew she was suitably adorned. These girls were also the ones available for use by the staff.
The choirmaster or Master as he was known was a middle aged man, called Jack who ruled the institute with a rod of iron along with his retinue of a dozen or so male assistants. It was these assistants that were by now herding the girls aboard their bus for the short journey back to the Institute and the inevitable investigation that would follow whenever the choir did not win their competition.
Famke was talking with two other girls toward the back of the bus in hushed tones.
“I know I will be punished since I am the lead soprano but do you think Master Jack noticed the slight off key notes that you sang, Merel?”
“Famke, how long have you been here, Master Jack never misses anything does he. I am sure I will be taken to task and so will Aleid”
“why will I be pulled up, Merel, the mistake was yours and I was simply reacting to your key change, it was not my fault, Master Jack will recognise the fault is yours”
“Aleid, how stupid are you. I know you are relatively new here but I am going to be severely punished purely by the fact we did not win. It is not enough that I was singled out for special mention by the judges for my solo, as the lead the axe always falls. Do you think Master Jack takes any mitigation into account. Please prepare yourself for an unpleasant evening”
“NO TALKING, GIRLS”
“Yes Master” they all said as one as if in harmony.
“we are nearly back at the Institute now and when we do we are going to have an investigation into what went wrong tonight. I know it is late but it cannot wait until tomorrow. You will all go straight to your rooms and change into your normal outfits and then congregate in the music room, all of you that is apart from Famke, Merle and Aleid. You three will go straight to the mux=sic room and await me there”
Yes Master” they all said as one.
The girls dismounted the bus and hurried to change into their daily outfit and made their way to the large music room in the main part of the Institute. They lined up in a tight group and faced the small stage where the three poor girls were waiting still wearing the competition clothes in stark contrast to the bare breasted group now watching them with a mixture of sympathy and relief that they were not included in the investigation.
A hush came across the group as footsteps approached from the rear, the heels clicking on the stone floor as the Master and his assistants walked into the music room, closing the large heavy doors behind them. The room was dimly lit, the open fires providing some light and flickering candles in the wall sconces and the overhead candelabra leant the room a soft somewhat monastic feel. Despite the stone floor it was remarkably warm inside.
“Well ladies, I think we will dispense with the excuses suffice to say, we are all hugely disappointed in your performance tonight. We were firmly in the belief that you would emerge victorious today, we felt you were excellently prepared and your training had given you all the tools you needed and the practice time allotted to you was more than sufficient. And yet here we are in second place. I almost blame myself; perhaps I have been too lenient on you all; perhaps my good nature has allowed you to become sloppy, lazy; perhaps we ned to go back to the more rigorous training regimes of last year”
There gasps from the assembled girls who all knew exactly what that meant. It meant lots and lots of incredibly hard work and practice with the slightest little fault punished severely and punished until it was perfect.
“I will be speaking to the staff here to discuss each of you in turn and you will be allotted a specific trainer and given a practice regime to follow. You will be ready for the next competition, ladies, trust me, you WILL be ready. But that is for tomorrow, we will now see what the price of failure is. Let this be a lesson to each and everyone of you. You three will now undress for punishment”
This was addressed to the three girls huddled together on the stage, who immediately started to undress. How ever many times they had undressed in front of the male staff it never became any more comfortable and the shame of exposing their young bodies to the stares of the men was palpable. Very soon the three were naked standing to attention, knowing that to cover themselves was forbidden and would only make their ordeal worse.
“Merel, Aleid your performance was not up to standard at all and you clearly need to practice. Starting right now you will be required to sing Agnus Dei aria in front of the choir every day for a week until you perfect it. In order to make you focus on your performance and beathing, each of you will be flogged as you sing. Should you make any mistakes we will simply start over until it is right. Prepare them”
Both girls knew not to struggled as they were moved under the chains being lowered above the stage, each chain already had wrist cuffs attached and the girls arms secured before the winch raised their hand above the heads. Not too high or the diaphragm would be affected and they were eager to hear the girls sing.
“Begin and continue until you are told to stop”
“Agnus Dei” SWISH
“qui tollis peccata mundi,” SLASH
“miserere nobis” CRACK.
The flogging was not particularly intense and the girls were grateful for that but it hurt nonetheless and they knew they were being tested and they had to give a good performance. The words were not lost on them or the gathered audience
“Agnus Dei” SWISH
“qui tollis peccata mundi,” SLASH
“miserere nobis” CRACK.
The tails of the whip struck the naked backs of the two singers who did their best to ignore the building pain in their soft flesh and focus on the words and delivering the greatest performance they could in the circumstances.
“Agnus Dei” SWISH
“qui tollis peccata mundi,” SLASH
“miserere nobis” CRACK.
Merel was the first to show some real discomfort and her breath caught in between the lines but she made sure she was ready for the words as the next line of pain as it burned her shoulders and she was note perfect. The assistants watched on as they girls performed naked their naked breasts rising and falling in perfect harmony with each other and the swinging whips.
“Enough, Enough. That was beautiful ladies and it just goes to show what heights we can achieve when you are properly motivated. We will repeat this exercise for the rest of the week…..no lets make it a fortnight. Every evening before prayers and lets see what you can achieve. Leave them there for now and bring Famke to the centre. Bend her over that bench and tie her down. We do not want her making a fuss and ruining the next performance do we”
It was done and Famke was secured over a very familiar whipping bench with her smooth unmarked flanks facing the remaining choir, her legs spread wide apart exposing her not for the girls benefit but that of the staff who were staring at her knowing she would be horrified to be so open and vulnerable. The men knew that very soon her soft buttocks would no longer be free from marks and that it would not be the last time they would see Famke in this position this evening with any luck.
“Now Famke, being the lead soloist is an honour in the Gelderland Institute, but it is a position that comes with a great desal of responsibility. The “soloist” is not their purely for her own performance, she has a responsibility to drive the rest of the choir to great heights. She must focus on her own performance to deliver the best she can but not at the cost of the whole. You will learn that personal plaudits are nothing if the choir does not succeed. This cane will help you learn the lesson you so badly require”
Master Jack swished the long thick cane a couple of times with a loud swoosh causing all the girls to flinch knowing the pain it would deliver. Even Merel and Aleid felt sorry for Famke despite the pain from their own recent whipping.
“Now ladies, we will all help Famke here as she endures the harsh lesson in reality. She will be caned whilst you all sing the entire score from the second part of tonight’s performance. The strokes will fall at 1 minute intervals until you are finished. If you keep perfect time I make that precisely 18 strokes for our dear soloist. If there is any deviation in timing, we will simply start over until you get it right so sing well ladies and help Famke this night.
It was a cruel punishment and Famke knew she would suffer as the girls started to sing and the first stoke burned into her soft plump buttocks and she tried not to scream and ruin the performance. The pain was such that she could not sing along but she felt they were performing well and perhaps she would only suffer one round of this abdominal beating.
The girls sang on and on and the cruel punishing cane lashed down again and again causing bright red welts to rise in Famke tortured skin. How many strokes now, the performance was coming to a crescendo and Famke thought she could tell the caning become harder as the singing raised in volume and gusto.
Just when she thought she could not possibly endure the pain she recognised the beginning of the end of the performance and it meant only one more horribly cruel stroke into her burning flesh. By some miracle the last potent stroke of the cane coincided with the culmination of the song and the burning pain blossomed and grew as the final not was held.
“Again, you can all see what can be achieved when the desire is strong. I know Famke is pleased that you kept you rhythm and timing perfectly, if only you had done so earlier we may have emerged in first place and poor Famke here wouldn’t be so cruelly beaten. The soloist and the main choir acting as one, that is what I demand and that is what you will all deliver next time and every time in the future. Perhaps the missing ingredient in our training is the incentive that only sharp pain can provide. You have proven my point admirably ladies and you can look forward to much more discipline and pain in your own regimes. We will be the best you can rely on that”
Famke was weeping now as the assistants slowly released her as well as Merle and Aleid, her flanks covered in burning lines of pain.
“You three will now serve the staff for the rest of the night in our quarters, clamp them and take them to lounge. The rest of you off to bed where you should contemplate your performances and how you will strive to do better. Famke you can look forward to much use tonight, as the lead you will now give the performance of your young life.


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