Phantom
of the Opera
The Phantom of The Opera is a gothic novel - combining
romance, horror, mystery and tragedy.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
In Leroux's original 1910 novel, the setting is 19th
century Paris at the Opera Garnier, a luxurious and
monumental building which has been built over a huge
underground lake. The employees claim that the opera
house is haunted by a mysterious ghost who causes a
variety of accidents. The "Opera Ghost" ("le
fantôme de l'Opéra") blackmails the
two opera managers to pay him a monthly retainer of
20,000 francs and reserve for him a private concert
booth.
Meanwhile, the young diva Christine Daaé (believed
to be inspired and guided by an Angel of Music supposedly
sent by her father) achieves sudden prominence on the
opera stage when she replaces the current prima donna
Carlotta, who has twice necessitated replacement due
to a mysterious illness. Christine wins the hearts of
the audience, including that of her childhood sweetheart,
Vicomte Raoul de Chagny.
The Phantom then becomes envious of her relationship
with Raoul and invites her to visit him down in his
world beneath the edifice. Christine accepts, and down
in the catacombs learns that her angel is in actuality
a deformed musical genius who wears a mask to hide his
abhorrent face. She screams in horror once she beholds
his true visage, and the Phantom locks her in his home,
agreeing to free her only after she promises to return
to him of her own free will.
Christine is torn between her love of young and charming
vicomte Raoul and her fascination with the Phantom's
darkly beautiful music. When she realizes that her angel
is also the Opera Ghost responsible for the accidents
and murders, she and Raoul decide to marry in secret
and run away from Paris -- and the Phantom's reach.
The Phantom discovers their plan and during Christine's
performance as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, he abducts
her from the stage. Down in the Phantom's home, the
last confrontation between the Phantom, Christine and
Raoul takes place.
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Who Is the Phantom?
The Phantom was born as Erik in a small town not far
from Rouen, the son of a master-mason. He ran away at
an early age from his father's house, where his ugliness
was a subject of horror and terror to his parents. For
a time, he frequented the fairs, where a freak show
showman exhibited him as the "living corpse."
He traveled around Europe and Asia with the Gypsies.
There he acquired his acrobatic and musical skills and
sharpened his twisted genius.
Eventually, he ended up as court assassin and personal-engineer
to the Persian Shah and built for him sophisticated
traps and torture devices (such as the Punjab Lasso).
After some time, the Shah feared that Erik knew too
much and decided to dispose of him. Erik managed to
escape, eventually making his way back to France.
Erik used his architectural genius skills and won a
contract as one of the architects of Paris' Palais Garnier
Opera House. Without anyone noticing, he pumped and
drained the underground water into an underground lake
and built a maze of tunnel and corridors. Past the underground
lake he built a lair for himself, where he could live
protected from the public.
Besides being a brilliant inventor and engineer, Erik
was also a musical genius, and he started to visit the
Opera House in order to listen to operas and interfere
with the manager's bad taste. Because he could not show
his face in public, he took the guise of a ghost, using
violence in order to blackmail the Opera managers and
bind them to his will. He exploited the employees' superstitions
and his knowledge about the building's secret passages,
allowing him access to every part of the building without
being noticed. He terrorized those who refused his demands
and even killed people as warnings. However, he treated
nicely those who were loyal to him and obeyed his command
(such as Madam Giry).
The story of the novel begins when a young chorus girl
named Christine Daaé joins the Opera's chorus
and Erik, the Phantom, falls in love.