Summary
The first chapter begins on the evening that the managers of the Opera House, MM. Debienne and Poligny, are giving a last gala performance to mark their retirement. Six young ladies of the ballet, who were apparently running away from “the ghost," flood the dressing room of one of the main dancers, La Sorelli. Sorelli herself is very superstitious and asks for details. For several months, there had been nothing discussed at the Opera but the ghost in dress-clothes who went about the entire building, who spoke to no one, to whom no one spoke, and who vanished as soon as he was seen. There is a hubbub among the corps de ballet. Soon other people also begin to state that they, too, had met a man in dress-clothes with a death’s head on his shoulders. As the young ladies of the corps de ballet discuss the appearance of the ghost, Meg Giry, a young performer, says that Joseph Buquet would do best to stay quiet. This is because Meg’s mother, Madame Giry, says so. This elicits the curiosity of the others, and they ask why her mother believes so. Meg says that she swore not to say anything. Meg eventually reveals that the secret of the ghost revolves around the ghost’s private box in the Opera, box number five. The mother of Jammes, another performer, comes bursting into the room, revealing that Joseph Buquet is dead and was found hanging in the third-floor cellar. The news spreads around the Opera, and everyone makes for the foyer.
As she makes her way to the foyer, Sorelli runs into the Comte de Chagny, who was coming upstairs. The acting-manager says not to inform the managers of the news, as it would ruin their last day. Some people protest that the managers had kept the talent of Daee hidden for no reason – she was performing that night because she was the understudy of Carlotta, who was absent that day. The Comte de Chagny – 'Philippe Georges Marie Comte de Chagny' is his complete title – takes part in this frenzy and claps loudly. He is a great aristocrat and a good-looking man, and after the death of his father he became the head of one of the oldest and most distinguished families in France, whose arms date back to the fourteenth century. The Comte de Cagny has two sisters and a brother, Raoul. Their mother had died whilst giving birth to Raoul, who is about twenty years younger than his brother. Philippe is prone to spoil Raoul, pleased to foresee a glorious career in the navy for him. He shows Raoul around Paris, even taking him behind the scenes of the Opera at Raoul’s request. That evening, Raoul takes the Comte de Chagny behind the scenes, and, postponing his usual visit to Sorelli for a few minutes, the count follows his brother down the passage that leads to Daee’s dressing-room, which is quite crowded. Christine has not yet come to, and the doctor of the theater has just arrived at the moment when Raoul enters. Raoul coolly asks the doctor to request that the other gentlemen clear the room, to which the doctor acquiesces.
The doctor sends everyone but Raoul and the maid away. Christine Daee utters a deep sigh, looks at Raoul, and asks him who he is. Raoul replies that he is the little boy who went into the sea to rescue her scarf. The doctor, maid, and Christine laugh in response. Raoul turns red and stands up. Raoul requests to speak with Christine in private, but she tells everyone—including Raoul—to leave. Raoul goes up to Christine’s dressing-room and, with his ear to the door to catch Christine’s voice, prepares to knock (thinking that Christine requested to clear the room because she wanted to speak with him alone). However, at that moment he hears a man’s voice in the dressing-room: the man declares that Christine must love him. Christine responds in a sad and trembling voice, and says that she only sings for him. Raoul, out of fear of being caught listening behind the door, steps back. Nonetheless he does not go away, retreating to a dark corner. He loves Christine, and so he has all the more reason to find out who the man in the room is. Christine leaves, but she does not see Raoul. He enters her room and finds only darkness and silence. He lights a match, but leaves, not knowing what he is doing or where he is going.
During this time, the farewell ceremony of the managers is taking place. All the people of the social and artistic world of Paris meet after the performance in the foyer of the ballet, where Sorelli waits for the arrival of the retiring managers with a glass of champagne in her hand. The members of the Crops de Ballet, young and old, discuss the events of the day. Everyone remarks that the retiring managers look cheerful. However, in the midst of the gaiety, Jammes breaks the smile of the managers and screams about the Opera ghost, in a tone of unspeakable terror. She points to a pallid face, with two deep black cavities under the eyebrows. Everybody laughs and pushes his neighbor and wants to offer the Opera ghost a drink, but he is gone. He slips through the crowd, and others hunt for him in vain. Sorelli is furious, as she is not able to finish her speech. The managers kiss and thank her, and run as fast they can away from the ghost. They find the new managers, M. Armand Moncharmin and M. Firmin Richard, whom they hardly know, outside the managers’ office.
It is through Moncharmin’s memoir that the reader learns of the intensity and graveness with which the old managers attempt to convince their successors of the ghost’s presence – and of the importance of keeping the ghost happy. The new managers initially take this as a joke and laugh it off. The old managers show the new ones a copy of the Opera memorandum-book. At the end of the book, there is a paragraph written in red ink that states one extra stipulation for the managers: the manager, in any month, must not delay for more than a fortnight the payment of 20,000 francs to the Opera ghost. Another condition is that Box Five on the grand tier must be placed at the disposal of the Opera ghost for every performance. Upon hearing this, the new managers thank their predecessors for their service and congratulate them on thinking of this joke. Moncharmin and Richard ask them if they have ever seen the ghost; the two respond that they have not ever seen him in his box. Moncharmin and Richard resolve to sell the box, and the four exit the office.
The chapter offers some background information on Moncharmin and Richard. Moncharmin does not know a note of music, but enjoys considerable private income and dabbles in Paris’s high society. He is a charming fellow and shows himself to be quite intelligent. Richard, on the other hand, is a very distinguished composer, having published a number of successful pieces of all kinds. However, he has a very hasty temper. During the first few days, they find themselves so busy and delighted to be at the helm of an enterprise such as the Opera House that they forget about story of the ghost. They soon receive a letter – written in the same red ink they saw in the memorandum-book – from the ghost himself. He requests that they (the managers) not sell his private box, and issues a warning of sorts. They think it to be a continuation of Debienne and Poligny’s joke and dismiss it, spending the rest of the day discussing, negotiating, signing, or canceling contracts.
They go to bed early, without so much as a glance at Box Five. The next morning, the managers receive a card of thanks from the ghost for last night’s performance; the card compliments Carlotta and Christine’s performances. They also receive a letter from their predecessors, who remind them of the stipulation regarding Box Five. That evening, Box Five is sold. The next morning, the managers find an inspector’s report relating to an incident that had happened the night before in Box Five, in which the occupants heard a strange, disturbing laughter. Richard sends for the inspector, and the inspector notes that the people in the box were told by a voice (when they entered the box) that the box was taken already. Moncharmin finds this humorous, but Richard is not amused. Richard sends for the box-keeper, Mme. Giry, the mother of little Meg. Richard asks Mme. Giry why she called the inspector last night, and she tells them that she did it because they (the new managers) might not want to have the same unpleasant experience as their predecessors. She tells a story of a time when the ghost had fooled some of Box Five’s occupants into quarreling with one another, leading to one of the occupants breaking a leg as he was running down the grand staircase. Giry also notes that the ghost is a man, and says that she once returned a fan of the ghost’s to Box Five, which he retrieved shortly thereafter. The managers think Giry to be a madwoman, and after she leaves, the managers tell the inspector that they will dispense with her services. They decide to look into the matter of Box Five themselves.
Christine doesn't show herself nowhere, and Vicomte de Chagny (Raoul) tries in vain to meet her. He writes to her, asking to call upon her. He receives a note from her one morning in which she says that she has not forgotten the little boy who went into the sea to rescue her scarf. She informs Raoul that she is going to Perros, to pay respects to her dead father. Raoul hurries to Perros. Christine’s father himself was a great musician, whose reputation was widespread. His wife died when Christine was just six years old; the father sold his patch of ground and went to the city of Upsala in search of fame and fortune, but he found nothing but poverty. He returned to the country, wandering from fair to fair, and, one day, one Professor Valerius heard them and took them to Gothenburg. He thought the father to be the world’s finest violinist, and was fond of to Christine’s voice as well. He provided for her education and instruction. She made rapid progress and became quite charming. When Valerius and his wife settled in France, they took Daee and Christine with them. “Mamma” Valerius treated Christine as her daughter. One day, a little boy (who was out with his governess) made her take a longer walk than usual; as the boy was following the little girl, her pure, sweet voice seemed to bind him to her. They came to the shore of an inlet, and there was also a high wind, which blew Christine’s scarf out to sea. Raoul went to retrieve it, and during the season, they saw each other and played together almost every day. Daee consented to give Raoul violin lessons at the request of his aunt. Daee would also tell Christine and Raoul stories, and one of the more memorable ones was the story of the Angel of Music. Daee said that no one ever sees the Angel, but he is heard by those who are meant to hear him.
According to the stories, the Angel comes when he is least expected, at times of sorrow and despair, but his voice is beautiful. Daee tells Christine that one day she will hear the Angel: when he (Daee) is in heaven, he will send for the Angel. Three years later, Raoul and Christine met again at Perros. The Professor had died, but his widow remained with Daee and Christine. Raoul and Christine realize they have feelings for each other, but Raoul, knowing that Christine could not be his wife because of his social status as the Vicomte de Chagny, leaves soon thereafter. Christine tries not to think of him, and makes immense progress as a singer. Meanwhile, her father dies, and she is devasted. The first time Raoul saw Christine at the Opera, he was charmed by her beauty and reminded of the time that he spent with her. Her behavior was quite indifferent this time, however, and then there was matter of the man’s voice behind the door. Raoul wonders why she laughed at him, and why she did not recognize him.
Raoul reaches Parros, and walks into the sitting-room of the Inn at which Christine is staying. Raoul angrily questions Christine, and the tone of his questions is so rough that Christine simply stares at Raoul without replying. He then answers his questions for her, and reveals that he knew about what went on in her dressing room the other night. Christine reacts with horror, and she asks Raoul to tell her all that he heard. She flees in great disorder and locks herself in her room.
Raoul walks to the graveyard in which the church stood. He is alone reading the inscriptions when Christine shows up. She asks Raoul if he remembers the legend of the Angel of Music. He does, and she reveals that it was the Angel of Music who was in her dressing room. Raoul laughs at this and is skeptical of Christine’s story. Christine replies in anger and disbelief, storming off. Raoul turns to the inn, feeling very sad and low-spirited. Raoul dines alone, and late at night Raoul hears Christine leave her room for the graveyard church. Raoul climbs down his window to follow her. Despite Raoul’s loud footsteps, Christine does not hear him. She kneels at her father’s grave and prays. At midnight, a musical note that Raoul and Christine had heard in their childhood begins playing; it is plaed played with incredible, divine skill, and art. When the music stops, Raoul hears a noise from the skulls in the heap of bones in the graveyard, and then he makes contact with what he describes as 'death’s head', which has a pair of scorching eyes. In the presence of this apparition, his courage fails him, and he remembers nothing more until he recovers consciousness the next day. He is brought back to the inn’s landlady; apparently, he was found stretched at full length on the steps of the high altar of the church. The landlady called for Christine in order to revive Raoul; it takes him some time to recover from these events.
Analysis
At the onset we immediately experience the distinctive style that Leroux writes in: it is en media res – in the midst of action – as there is chaos about the Opera because some of the ballet dancers have apparently seen the ghost. The reader has a lot thrown at her at the beginning, and part of the challenge (and beauty as well) of reading this story is piecing together disparate, sometimes apparently unrelated bits of information to make sense of the novel as a whole.
This involves processing the introduction of various characters – La Sorelli, Little Jammes, Meg Giry – all at once. Moreover, though they appear to have an important role because of detailed descriptions that Leroux provides, this ends up ultimately being misleading. And, on the other hand, the main characters that we see later on (Erik, Raoul, the Persian, and Christine) are absent for some time at the start of the story.
There are also incredible transitions in mood: from talk of a ghost to gaiety of the gala performance. The Comte de Chagny notes that there was no gala performance like the one performed on that night. All the great composers of the day conducted their own works in turns, but the real triumph was reserved for Christine Daee, who began by singing a few passages from Romeo and Juliet. No one had ever heard or seen anything like her performance that night. The house goes mad, rising to its feet, cheering and clapping.
Right there and then, we see the resurgence of a deep tension that persists through the end of the novel: tension about the ghost and his appearance. Some of the guests of the gala were diverted by their discovery of a strange face with hollow eyes, which they took to be the Opera ghost. Those who looked at him with a smile soon looked away, because he provoked funereal thoughts. He himself did not say anything, and every one felt that if the dead did ever come and sit at the table of the living, they could not cut a more ghastly figure. Friends of Moncharmin and Richard thought that he was a guest of Debienne’s or Poligny’s. The friends of the old managers believed him to be an acquaintance of Moncharmin and Richard. The result was that no request was made for an explanation, and there was no unpleasant remark or joke in bad taste. The man himself begins to speak with Debienne and Poligny and informs them of Buquet’s death, to which they respond on horror. Thus confusion about appearance and identity runs deep in the narrative from the get-go.
