The Untold Story of the Phantom of the Opera

Il Muto

The opening night followed and opened with a full house. Ladies' dresses and jewelry sparkled and glittered in the chandelier's light as stars on the dark night sky. Tonight's atmosphere backstage seemed tense, in every corner there was whispering about the Phantom, they were afraid that he would cause more damage to the production, especially when Firmin and André hadn't followed his instructions. I too had my worries, 'cos I knew how powerful the Phantom was, sometimes it felt like that everybody knew his wrath but chose to shove it aside. I was dressed in pageboy costume, wondering around backstage where all the ballet dancers were finishing up and chalking their shoes. Even though everyone was worried about tonight, most tried to hide it away with chatting and flirting - many of the young men already flirted with the girls, some even flirted with the other males. Yes, the opera surely is a strange world with strange different and talented creatures.

"Christine-!" Meg was done changing; her mouth looked so petite because of the make-up. She'd grasped my arm as I hadn't responded to her. "Christine? Oh god you look terrible! No not like that, you... You just look worried" my face tensed more than before. "Is something wrong?"

She certainly didn't sound like she was joking.

"Yes, 'course I'm worried… just like everyone else is." I sounded harsh towards poor Meg.

"What is it? Why are you looking for me? Shouldn't you be on the other side of the stage?"

"Yes, but you see Raoul - I mean, Le Vicomte de Chagny - was asking for you."

My worries hadn't the capacity to see Raoul, not tonight. "Send him my words that I can't see him now as the production is about to start!"

"Of course; Christine, before the opening and everything, I just want you... I just want to... You know..." But I didn't get to know what Meg would tell me, because the second after she tiptoed away. My eyes glanced around at elegant dancers and hasty dwarfs in the backstage crowd. My eyes then looked up, where I caught Monsieur Bouquet, who made the last check on all the ropes and their knots. He caught me looking in his direction. Bouquet smiled at me then pulled his scarf so it looked like he'd hung himself, which he often did to scare the dancers and tonight I was properly scared of his actions. He wickedly laughed at my reaction as Giry shouted everybody to their positions.

"This will not end well." Madame Giry warned me, I couldn't help but feel she was warning the right one.

My heart pounded so hard I feared it would jump right out of my chest! Monsieur Reyer entered the stage with applause from the audience. From where I was standing I could not see him shake, he didn't even look worried for tonight. Monsieur Reyer went on and down to the orchestra and the overture started to play before the curtains would go up. I felt my stomach turn as I spotted Raoul sitting in box five, with flowers behind him. Don't think I didn't like the flowers, but I was even more scared now, that Raoul dared to sit there, in that specific box under the night's certain circumstances. The tunes danced around the tensed theatre but the audience didn't seem to feel it like us and gave another round of applause when the music stopped. La Carlotta's sleek white hand landed, aggressively, hard on my shoulder so she could easily turn me around to face her.

"Remember to shut up! You will never reach me to my ankles!" I was so startled that I didn't have anything for a fitting comeback! La Carlotta on tip toes on the stage, behind her hovered a white dusty powdered cloud from her powder overdosed wig. The curtains flew up, and then music and Carlotta's high pitch voice melted together. Well almost. I saw my queue and danced in on the stage. So far the Phantom hadn't showed, but I knew better that he was not pleased. It was just before the first act ended that something did not feel right.