Who was really the ghost of the Opera Garnier? The Phantom of the Opera.

Dalia

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Sep 19, 2016
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We all know the legend of the phantom of the Opera Garnier... but where does this Parisian legend come from and who is this famous ghost whose box number 5 still exists?

It all began on October 28, 1873: a young pianist was reportedly burned in the fire at the conservatory on Rue Le Peletier. His fiancée, a ballerina from the conservatory, would then have lost her life. Inconsolable and disfigured, he would have found refuge in the underground of the Opera Garnier, then in the middle of construction.

It was therefore inside the Palais Garnier that the man, Ernest, stayed until his death. He is said to have lived near the lake under the Opera House and served as a water reserve in the event of a fire. He devoted the end of his life to his art and the completion of his work, a hymn to love and death. This one would have died in the basement. His body was never found, and it is believed that he was mistaken for the bodies of the communards.

But the story took another turn in 1910. A writer, Gaston Leroux, was inspired by legend and several disturbing events to write his famous novel: The Phantom of the Opera.

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In the foreword, here is what he writes: "We remember that lately, by digging the basement of the Opera House to bury the phonographed voices of the artists, the peak of the workers laid bare a corpse. Now, I immediately had proof that this corpse was that of the Phantom of the Opera! I have touched this evidence, by hand, with the administrator himself, and now it is indifferent to me that the newspapers say that we found there a victim of the commune."

History then goes around the world. In his novel, Gaston Leroux talks about the mysterious occupant of the underground of the Palais Garnier. But far from inventing this story, the author was inspired by unexplained events attributed to Ernest the pianist devoured by the flames.

On May 20, 1896, in the pomp of the Palais Garnier, the hall's grand chandelier came down and killed a spectator during a performance of Gounod's Faust. Legend has it that this spectator was seated in place number 13.

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Subsequently, a series of strange phenomena accredits the presence of the ghost: a machinist is found hanged, we could have concluded a suicide, except that the rope is missing! Soon after, a dancer dies after falling from a gallery.


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But, even stranger, a young singer, Christine Daaé, a soprano, reportedly said she had met the famous Phantom of the Opera. She became his favorite, and he gave her singing lessons, posing as the Angel of Music. The ghost's platonic love will prevent the young woman, out of fear, from falling in love with the Viscount of Chagny.

Last unusual anecdote, the directors of the time were contacted by an individual demanding that he be given 20,000 francs a month and that he be reserved for the box number 5 ... (a dressing room still visible today at the Opera House!)

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Link in French : Qui était vraiment le fantôme de l'Opéra Garnier ?
 

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