Prologue

(1919, Paris, France)

AUCTIONEER: Sold. Your number sir? Thank you. Lot 664, a wooden pistol and three human skulls from Hannibal, a production by Chalemeu. Do I here ten? No, five then? Five, thank you sir. Six? And you sir seven? Seven against you sir. Seven going once, twice, sold. And now, lot 665,ladies and gentlemen: a papier-maché musical box, in the shape of a barrel-organ. Attatched, 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.

AUCTIONEER: May I start at twenty francs? Fifteen, then? Fifteen I am bid. Twenty sir, thank you. Twenty. Twenty-five, thank you madame. Thirty, and do I hear thirty-five madame?

(Madame Giry shakes her head)Selling at thiry then, thirty once, twice. Sold, for thirty francs to the Vicomte de Chagny. Thank you, sir.

RAOUL: (sung in head) 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 it 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 reassembled. Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination, gentlemen?

(The cover comes off the chandelier and it lights up. The overture music starts.

As the chandelier is raised, the opera house becomes restored and we go back in time to the year 1870.)