Chapter Two – Masquerade
Paris Opera – Mid-March 2005
"Madame Landry!" André, accompanied by a considerably underdressed woman with Italian looks, runs to greet Elle as she enters the opera house for the opening reception. He is dressed in a jester's costume, a jovial look on his face. "This is my assistant manager, Carla. Car, this is Elle Landry and her granddaughter Christine."
"It is a pleasure to meet you both," Carla says. Yes, she is fully Italian, Christine thinks. And not at all self-conscious. Carla is dressed in the most revealing Marie Antoinette costume, or what Christine assumes to be a costume for the last French queen, complete with towering powdered wig. She shakes both Christine and Elle's hands, and then André speaks again.
"As I said, she is my assistant manager…"
"And girlfriend," says a familiar voice from behind André. Erik appears there, decked out in a most realistic Phantom of the Opera costume. In his left hand, he holds a guest list and two red roses in his right.
"Erik!" Carla shouts, ignoring his comment about her. "You look so handsome!"
"Thank you, Madame." He turns and bows to Elle and Christine. "Bonsoir, Madame Landry. Mademoiselle," he adds, to Christine as the band begins to play a very fast song that pulls many guests to the dance floor. Erik hands a rose each to Elle and Christine.
"Erik, why don't you go dance? Madame Garnier's daughter Melissa looks to be partner-less."
"Father, I don't need to dance," Erik retorts angrily. "Besides, I have the guest list to worry about," but Carla grabs it from him almost instantaneously.
"Now you don't." She grabs Christine's hand firmly with one hand and Erik's with the other. Carla then places them together. "Dance!" She thrusts them out onto the dance floor as the faster song ends and a moderately-paced waltz begins. Erik and Christine say nothing as they join the others on the dance floor. Christine tries to act like she's experienced in ballroom dancing, but she knows that Erik has noticed that she is clearly not. He spins her around to the music, an obvious expert on the subject.
"You're doing better than other first-timers I've met," he says jokingly, catching Christine a little off-guard, so she says nothing in response. "Christine?" That is the first time he's said her name in that gorgeous voice of his.
"Yes?"
"You didn't respond to me." She can't see his full expression through his Phantom mask, but she's sure that he looks a little hurt.
"Sorry," she replies quietly as the dance ends. "I'm going to go get some punch."
"Mind if I join you?" She shakes her head and he falls into step behind her toward the drink table. However, his strides are longer than hers, and he manages to grab two glasses before she can, offering the second one to her. "My father would kill me if he saw me not acting like the perfect gentleman tonight." Christine laughs a little at Erik's comment and takes a sip of the punch he's handed her. Then a thought strikes her.
"Why would you parade around as the Phantom, Erik, when he was the doom of the Opera Populaire so many years ago? It doesn't seem like a dose of bad luck for this opera house to you?" He chuckles.
"My dear Christine, you don't know the half of it, do you?"
"I know that the Phantom brought on the burning of the opera." Why, she wonders, is he questioning her like this? Does he think her a dumb and blind child?
"That much is true, Christine, but there is more. Do you wish me to tell you?" Erik leans against the marbled wall behind the drink table.
"I suppose," Christine replies, a little curious.
"I assumed that you'd know, considering that your great-great-grandmother was there. But we'll get to that later." He pauses, and Christine chooses to remain in silence. "Ah, the strange occurrence of the Phantom of the Opera; what an interesting tale it is. It all begins at the Opera Populaire in eighteen-seventy with a young chorus girl whose name was, coincidentally, Christine. Christine Daaè. She was nothing more than an orphaned dancer.
"Before Christine's father passed away, he told her of an 'Angel of Music' who would watch over her. All her life, she believed it and hoped that one day he would come to her. When she joined the opera, she was visited by this 'Angel' who coached her in her singing. She, however, never saw him.
"One day, the opera was rehearsing for Hannibal, when the talent-less diva, La Carlotta, quit in a rage, the opera's new owners, Monsieurs André and Firmin, were told by dance instructor, Madame Giry, that Christine could sing. They had her sing for them, and she replaced Carlotta as the lead.
"Her childhood sweetheart, Raoul le Vicomte de Chagny, was the newest patron of the opera, and saw her as the lead soprano that night. He came to her dressing room afterwards, and told her to meet him for dinner. However, her 'Angel' had other plans. Her 'Angel' was the infamous Opera Ghost, the Phantom of the Opera. He called to her through his one-way mirror and led her down to his lair in the catacombs of the opera house.
"The following day, Carlotta asked for her position back, even though the Phantom had left a note for the owners; 'Christine will play the lead and Carlotta, the pageboy. It is a silent role which makes my casting, in a word, ideal.' Carlotta took her place as the lead, and, in his rage, the Phantom hung one of the stagehands above the stage.
"Christine led Raoul up on the opera roof, where they professed their love for each other. Unbeknownst to the lovers, the Phantom was listening, and his anger only grew, for he was in love with his pupil. Later that year, the opera held a masquerade ball. The Phantom made an appearance with an opera, Don Juan Triumphant!, that he had written. As well, he took Christine's engagement ring from Raoul with the words, 'You belong to me!'
"In an attempt to find the Phantom, Raoul followed him, but Madame Giry stopped him. She told him the sad story of how she had saved the Phantom, who was then a child, from a freak show. His disfigurement had been put on display, and she pitied him. The child Phantom hung the man displaying him and ran off with Madame Giry, who was then a student in the opera. She hid him in the catacombs under the opera house, where he could use his creative genius to write music. As Raoul put it to Madame, 'Genius has turned to madness.'
"Raoul was determined to capture and kill the Phantom, so he arranged for the opera to perform Don Juan with Christine as the female lead, Aminta. She was scared to do so, afraid that the Phantom would put an end to more people in his determination to see her a star. But Raoul assured her that there would be too many armed guards.
"It didn't matter. Before the final musical number, the Phantom killed Piangi, Carlotta's husband and the male lead, and took his place as Don Juan. As the music for his own song, The Point of No Return, began, the Phantom made his way onstage, much to Christine's confusion and wonderment. The song, the ultimate song of passion, ended, and, atop a bridge onstage, the Phantom's mask was removed by Christine, revealing his disfigurement to the world.
"They dropped below the opera house into his lair, followed closely by Raoul. He found them in his underground lair, where the Phantom had told Christine that she belonged to him for the rest of her life. Raoul challenged the Phantom, who caught him in a noose and was ready to hang him then and there in front of his lover. But he offered Christine the choice; the Phantom and her lover's survival, or Raoul and her lover's demise.
"Not eager to see the choice made, Christine went to her 'Angel' and kissed him with all of the passion he'd always wanted her to. The Phantom's heart was broken. He sent Christine and Raoul away, then disappeared himself. Madame Giry's daughter and Christine's best friend, Meg, was with the mob, and she found the Phantom's mask, abandoned on a table. He was never seen again.
"However, a few years after Christine's death, her elderly husband visited her grave. Upon the tombstone was a single red rose tied in a black ribbon; the Phantom had returned." Erik stops, his story over.
"What about my great-great-grandmother?" But they are interrupted.
"Erik! Your father wants you!" Carla scuttles over to Christine and Erik, her stilettos clicking on the marble floor.
"Yes, Carla." He nods to Christine and walks away, his cape swishing as he moves, the light reflecting off of his white mask. Christine looks after him, his feet making soft echoes on the floor. He joins his father by the door, shaking the hands of many dignitaries. One, in particular, catches Christine's eye. The man is on the shorter, stouter side, with graying hair and a boyish face. The man shakes both men's hands, distracting Christine. She studies Erik and his father; they are opposites. André in his court jester's outfit looks like he belongs at a masquerade, while Erik, dressed as the seductive Phantom, belongs in a nightmare.
"So, Christine," says Carla, making Christine turn away from the opera's owner and his son, "what do you think of Erik?"
"He's kind, but a little possessed. He knows the story of his character by heart."
"Ah, yes, Erik has always been the obsessive type. And very introverted, I must say. I'd love to see him having fun once and a while. He's always in his room or in his father's office, reading or playing the piano. He's quite the musical talent." Christine says nothing to this, scared of the resemblance between Erik and the Opera Ghost he portrays tonight.
The evening passes uneventfully, as Christine sits alone at a table receiving many a compliment for her costume, a Spanish flamenco dancer. As it draws nearer and nearer to midnight, Elle comes over to her, accompanied by André and Carla. "Christine!" shouts André, and she stands. "You're grandmother's just told me you will be joining the opera!"
"That's correct, Monsieur Destler," she replies politely, curtsying. Her chocolate curls bounce as she moves, catching the light from the chandelier. "I am honored."
"You will certainly love it here, Christine," Carla adds. "We're already looking into operas to perform."
"What's on the list?" Christine asks, though she knows nothing of operas.
"That is a secret, Mademoiselle, and only Carla and I can share in it," André replies slyly, winking at her. "We'll have our first rehearsal next Friday, where we'll discuss our first production and what everyone will be doing. What're you interested in?"
"I've taken dance for ten years and I was in my school's chorus before I started home schooling."
"Very good, Mademoiselle! I'm sure we'll find a place for you in our opera! Come, Carla. Guests are beginning to leave." The managers walk away, leaving Elle and Christine.
"Come, mon chéri. We must be returning home." They return to the apartment, and, as Christine is tucking herself into bed, she is hit with a sudden question for Elle.
"Grand-mère?"
"Yes, Christine?" Elle turns away from her bureau, where she has been neatly placing her jewelry from the evening.
"What do you know about the Phantom of the Opera?" Elle stops dead.
"Could you run that by me again, Christine?"
"The Phantom of the Opera; what do you know? Don't lie to me, Grand-mère. I want to know." Christine looks to Elle with pleading eyes, wanting to know everything Erik didn't tell her.
"Why are you suddenly so interested, Christine?"
"Well, see, I asked Erik why he'd dress as the Phantom at the opening of an opera, considering that the Phantom was the demise of the Opera Populaire, and he asked me if I knew the whole story. I didn't, I guess, so he told me, but I don't think he told me everything." Elle gazes across the room at her granddaughter and sighs.
"What do you want to know, my child?"
"Is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"That my great-great-grandmother was in the Opera." Elle's face creases in surprise.
"Yes, Christine. Marguerite was a dancer and chorus girl at the Opera Populaire. Her mother was the dance instructor."
"Meg Giry is my great-great-grandmother?" Christine is completely intrigued now, wondering what more her grandmother may know. "What else is there? Did the Phantom really seduce a girl my age?" Elle nods.
"And Erik told you about the occurrence at her grave? With the rose?" It is Christine's turn to nod. "Well, that was almost ninety years ago, but they say that the Phantom will come back again. So many people were skeptical about putting up the new opera house because of it. They say he'll return now that there's a place for him, a place where he belongs."
Christine sits up on the edge of her mattress, wanting more. "But what does it mean, he'll come back? Nobody believes in reincarnation anymore."
"Christine," she says softly, "the Phantom was not the type to not seek revenge. He wanted his little starlet to have everything and he was willing to kill others to do it. When he ran, he left this." Elle goes over to her bureau and takes down the music box. Christine had always loved it, with the intricate little monkey on it playing its cymbals.
"That was the Phantom's?"
"Yes, Christine. Actually, it was sold at an auction before they completely demolished the Opera Populaire. Le Vicomte de Chagny bought it. In his will, he asked that it be given to our family. You'll get it one day," she says, bringing it back to the bureau and turning it on. It played a soft but happy tune, some of the notes a little off from years of abandonment and no use.
Elle begins to sing along. "Masquerade, paper faces on parade. Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you." Christine leans back on her pillows, burying herself in the sheets to the sound of her grandmother's voice, melodic and sweet. Soon, sleep consumes her in its dark depths.
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