April 5th, 1870
Christine Daae
Stage - Auditorium - Night
The magic, glamour and majesty of a gala performance. We are moving around Jamila and as Jamila was almost late since she was in the fifth box, giving her money to the Phantom, as we move behind her, the light changes. we come around the other side to reveal the packed gala auditorium. Reyer is conducting a full orchestra, the gas lights are flickering.
Jamila is revealed in a dazzling white costume backed by a lavish Meyerbeer-like set (moon, stars, moving clouds, a waterfall) and white horses adorned with white wings, tended by two boys - turbaned with silver masks.
"Think of me, think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye. Remember me once in a while - please promise me you'll try.
When you find that, once again, you long to take your heart back and be free if you ever find a moment spare a thought for me...
We never said our love was evergreen, or as unchanging as the sea - but if you can still remember stop and think of me...
Think of all the things we've shared and seen - don't think about the way things might have been... Think of me, think of me waking silent and resigned." Jamila sings
Dozens of opera glasses raise to watch Jamila.
"Imagine me, trying too hard to put you from my mind." she sings
Music travels from Jamila to Reyer - down past the musicians, through the orchestra pit...
Down through the underbelly of the stage. Down, down, ever downward - into the very bowels of the ancient stone structure which is part of the canals and locks, symbiotic with the Seine River. Somewhere in the rippling watery light - a dark creature of the night thrills to her voice - he is hidden by shadows, but we know he's there.
"Recall those days, look back on all those times, think of the things, we'll never do. There will never be a day when I won't think of you..." Jamila sings
During this, I see the audience. The men in tailcoats and gloves, the women in dazzling gowns and jewelry. The whole of the French aristocracy is here in the boxes, the stalls and circles. In the royal box sit Emperor Louis Napoleon III, the Empress and their entourage.
In another, I see Firmin, Andre and young Raoul. They are all delighted, looking at the audience and Jamila on stage.
The Emperor claps in mid-aria, giving permission to the rest of the glittering crowd.
Applause, bravos. Prominent among the bravos, those of young Raoul in Box Five. He leaps up.
"Can it be? Can it be Jamila?" Raoul sings. "Bravo!" Raoul shouts
Meg follows him as he leaves the box.
Raoul rushes out of the box, past Madame Giry who has been standing near it. As she closes the door, we see the number on the door: Box Five. She watches him run toward the stairs.
The foyers are empty apart from a few guards at ease and the usherettes waiting.
"Long ago, it seems so long ago, how young and innocent we were. She may not remember me, but I remember her." Raoul sings.
We go to Jamila on stage:
"Flowers fade, the fruits of summer fade. They have their seasons. So do we. But please promise me that sometimes you will think... (cadenza) ...of me!" Jamila sings.
I see the ballet dancers circle Jamila's and then cranes to reveal the huge audience waiting. Then, we see the emperor applauding and, suddenly the whole house erupts. This continues over:
"Brava! Magnifica! Stupenda!" Andre tells Jamila.
"Bravo." Reyer tells Jamila.
Maid POV
A maid, Carlotta's maid, runs out of a door into the courtyard toward a waiting closed carriage. Carlotta leans into the window. The maid report's Jamila's triumph. Carlotta collapses back into the carriage against Piangi. He tries to console her but she slaps him.
Jamila Cleopatra Tabia Daae POV
The audience is crowding into the backstage corridors. Among them, Raoul trying to find me. There is a crush on the stairs leading up to the dressing rooms, a mixture of Aristocrats (some flirting with the ballet girls),
Stagehands and singers. Bottles of champagne are popping; flowers are being delivered. Raoul is trying to fight his way through. Meg, also looking for me, she moves into...
...a deserted part of the building. Eerie. Meg goes out of shot and the camera goes down a small stone stairway. It leads to a small set of doors. She goes through to find...
...me, in costume, kneeling in a tiny chapel. She is lighting three candles which she places in front of a plaque. Fixed to the plaque is a daguerreotype of my father, uncle, and mother. There is a sculpted violin in front. Father was a soldier and a musician, a cellist and met my mother, an Egyptian beauty who can in her tribe be considered a princess.
We notice that there are plaques all along the wall, each with a little sculpture describing the profession of the deceased member of the Opera Populaire: ballet shoes, instruments, etc. I kneel to pray. I hear:
"Brava, Brava, Bravissima..." Erik calls out to me
And a phrase on the violin. I look up, drawn to the sound.
Meg is still searching for me.
"Jamila... Jamila..." Meg calls out
She sees the little stairway leading to the chapel.
"Jamila..." Erik calls out.
But Meg has arrived in the chapel, giving me a start.
"Where in the world have you been hiding? Really you were perfect! I only wish I knew your secret! Who is your great tutor?" Meg sings
"Meg... When your mother brought me and Christine here to live..." I speak.
Dark. Empty. A four-year-old Jamila, accompanied by Madam Giry and Christine, arrives at the Opera House. They are all in black. Someone is watching from the shadows.
"Whenever I would come here alone to light a candle for my father..." I speak.
Young Jamila on her knees lighting the candle in the chapel. When she hears a haunting voice.
"A voice from above..." I speak.
Above the small chapel you see a shape of a shadow singing to Jamila through an elaborate filigreed grill.
"And in my dreams... he was always there" I say.
The young Jamila sleeps in the Ballet Dorm - the bed next to young Christine's. She wakes to a magical voice. She is enthralled and inspired. The voice comes through a small round window that leads...
...to the magnificent statues on the roof that overlooks all of Paris. The dark silhouette sings and plays the violin...
"You see... When my father and then uncle lay dying..." I speak.
Jamila's father dying in his small bed, whispering to the young Jamila and then a year later, her uncle made the same promise. A younger Madam Giry catches sadly, from a distance.
"They told me I would be protected by an Angel... an Angel of Music..." I speak.
"Jamila... do you believe? ...Do you think the spirit of your father is coaching you?" Meg asks.
"Who else, Meg? Who...?" I ask.
"Father once spoke of an angel... I
used to dream he'd appear... Now,
as I sing, I can sense him... and
I know he's here...
Here in this room, he calls me
softly... somewhere inside...
hiding... Somehow, I know he's
always with me... He - the unseen
Genius..." I sing.
Meg moves toward me and begins to lead her out of the chapel.
"Jamila, you must have been
dreaming. Stories like this can't
come true... Jamila, you're
talking in riddles and it's not
like you..." Meg sings.
Meg is leading me down the corridor.
"Angel of Music! Guide and
guardian! Grant to me your glory!" I sing.
We see the rafters above them.
"Who is this angel?" Meg sings.
Flies raise and lower as Buquet, busy securing ropes, watches them, lecherously. They are unaware of his presence.
"Angel of Music! Hide no longer!
Secret and strange angel..." I and Meg sing.
"He's with me even now..." I sing.
"Your hands are cold..." Meg sings.
"All around me..." I sing
"Your face, Jamila, it's white..." Meg sings.
"It frightens me..." I sing.
"Don't be frightened..." Meg sings
They arrive in the corridor and find an adoring crowd of fans. They move through the crowd toward Jamila's dressing room amid bravos and flowers... Raoul sees them but cannot reach them.
Meanwhile, Firmin and Andre are trying to make their way toward Jamila, in high spirits, bearing champagne, and fawned over by the toothy ballet tart and an equally available chorus girl.
"A tour de force! No other way to describe it!" Andre says.
"What a relief! Not a single refund." Firmin says.
"You know it's opera tradition to drink champagne from your star's slipper." Andre says.
"I've never been one for tradition." Firmin says.
He grabs the bottle from Andre and swigs from it.
Madam Giry ushers me into the room. It is filled with flowers.
"You did very well, my dear. He is pleased with you." Madam Giry says.
She hands me a single red rose with a black ribbon obviously from Erik AKA the Phantom.
"Ah, Vicomte, I think we've made quite a discovery with Miss Daae!" Firmin says.
"Perhaps we can present her to you, dear Vicomte." Andre says
"Gentlemen, if you wouldn't mind. This is one visit I should prefer to make unaccompanied as I need to apologize for a childhood insult." Raoul says.
He takes the champagne from Firmin.
"But thank you." Raoul says.
They bow and move off.
"It would appear they've met before... and it wasn't a pleasant one." Firmin says.
"Yes." Andre says.
I am sitting at my mirror. It is surrounded by roses. There are candles around her. The buffoon enters:
"Little Lette let her mind wander..." Raoul
I am puzzled.
"Little Lette thought: am I fonder of dolls... or of goblins... of shoes..." Raoul says.
"Raoul. Get out." I speak.
"...Or of riddles, of frocks..." Raoul says
"Those times you called me ugly..." I speak
"...Or of that of chocolates..." Raoul says.
"Uncle playing the violin... You hanging around Chrisine while you bullied me. Calling me talentless... Never going to be worth anything but a wife." I speak.
"No - What I love best, Lettie
said, is when I'm asleep in my bed,
(sung)
And the angel of music sings songs
in my head and protects me!" Jamila sings
"...The Angel of Music sings songs
in my head!" Both sing though I pull a face when he does.
"Father and Uncle said, "When I'm in heaven, child, I will send the Angel of Music to you."
"Well, father is dead, Raoul, and I have been visited by the Angel of Music and he has improved my talent and he protects me."
"No doubt of it. And now we go to supper!"
"No, Raoul; the Angel of Music is very strict and I will never go to supper with you!" I speak.
"I shan't keep you up late!" Raoul says
"No, Raoul... I said no!" I said.
"You must change. I'll order my carriage. Two minutes - Little Lette."
He hurries out, closing the door.
"Raoul! No, I said no you buffoon!"
Madam Giry POV
A perfectly gloved hand turns the key in the outside door. Removing the key, the hand disappears. Madam Giry is watching from the shadows.
Jamila POV
Unaware of this, and while thunderous music swells, I have started changing into my dressing gown. Tremulous music. I turn and hear the Phantom's voice, seemingly through the timbers if the theatre.
"Insolent boy! This slave of fashion, basking in your glory! Ignorant fool! This brave, young suitor, sharing in my triumph!"
The angry sound of the Phantom's voice is heard by some; Meg, Madam. Giry, Buquet.
Shots showing the opera house closed down for the night; the lamplighters extinguishing the lights along the stage, doors closing etc...
"Angel! I hear you! speak - I
listen... stay by my side, guide
me! Angel, my soul was weak -
forgive me... Enter at last,
Master!" I sing.
"Flattering child, you shall know
me, see why in shadow I hide! Look
at your face in the mirror - I am
there inside!" Erik sings.
Very dimly, behind the mirror, we begin to glimpse the white of the Phantom's mask over my reflection. Slowly, through the following, the shape becomes more and more defined.
"Angel of Music! Guide and guardian! Grant to me your glory! Angel of Music, hide no longer! Come to me, strange angel..." I sing, ecstatic
"I am your Angel of Music... Come to me Angel of Music..." the Phantom/Erik sings
I am mesmerized in a Svengali/Trilby-like hypnotic trance, is drawn towards the glass.