1 The Opera House

The Phantom of the Opera

Chapter 1 The Opera House The Phantom of the Opera isn't just another ghost story. The phantom really existed, secretly roaming the grand halls of the Paris Opera House...

The air in the opera house was humming with excitement. It was the first night under new management. Voices were warming up with high trills... Tra la la laa! ...and stage-hands were milling around, looking for props.

The star of the show, Carlotta, stomped around, complaining. I said RED grapes you fool! "How can I be expected to sing," she wailed, to no one in particular, "when my throat hurts from all the smoke in this horrible city?"

Down the corridor from Carlotta, dancers fussed and fiddled with their costumes. But in one dressing room the evening's performance was the last thing anyone was thinking about...

"I heard the ghost has different heads that he changes as he pleases," said one of the dancers. "I've heard he has no nose!" cried another, whose own nose was widely admired. I thought he was a skeleton?