Prologue-The Stage of the Paris Opera, 1911 AUCTIONEER: Sold. Your number, sir? Thank you. Lot 663, then, ladies and gentlemen: a poster for this house's production of "Hannibal" by Chalumeau. PORTER: Showing here. AUCTIONEER: Do I have ten francs? Five then. Five I am bid. Six, seven. Against you, sir, seven. Eight. Eight once. Selling twice. Sold, to Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny. Lot 664: a wooden pistol and three human skulls from the 1831 production of "Robert le Diable" by Meyerbeer. T en francs for this. Ten, thank you. Ten francs still. Fifteen, thank you, sir Fifteen I am bid. Going at fifteen. Your number, sir? 665, ladies and gentlemen: a papier-mache 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. AUCTIONEER: May I start at twenty francs? Fifteen, then? Fifteen I am bid. Sold, for thirty francs to the Vicomte de Chagny. Thank you, sir. RAOUL: 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 repaired it and wired parts of it for the new electric light, so that we may get a hint of how it may look when reassembled. Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many...
