Phantom of the Opera - PROLOGUE

THE STAGE OF THE PARIS OPERA, 1905

(The opera house is being auctioned off. RAOUL is seventy now)

AUCTIONEER: Sold. Your number, sir? Thank you.

Lot 665, ladies and gentlemen:

a papier-maché musical box, in the shape of a barrel-organ.

Attached, the figure of a monkey in Persian robes

playing the cymbals. This item,

discovered in the vaults of the theatre, still in working order.

PORTER: Showing here. (He sets it in motion)

AUCTIONEER: May I start at 20 francs? 15, then? 15 I am bid.

(The bidding continues. RAOUL buys the box for 30 francs)

Sold, for 30 francs to the Vicomte de Chagny. Thank you, sir.

(The box is handed across to RAOUL. He studies it)

RAOUL (quietly, half to himself, half to the box)

A collector's piece indeed . .

every detail exactly as she said . . .

She often spoke of you, my friend ....

Your velvet lining, and your figurine of lead...

Will you still play,

when all the rest of us are dead?

AUCTIONEER: Lot 666, then: a chandelier in pieces.

Some of you may recall the strange affair

of the Phantom of the Opera:

a mystery never fully explained.

We are told ladies and gentlemen,

that this is the very chandelier

which figures in the famous disaster.

Our workshops have restored it and fitted up parts of it

with wiring for the new electric light,

so that we may get a hint of what it may look like when re-assembled.

Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many years ago

with a little illumination, gentlemen?

LRC: yangchencen