#Armand moncharmin

[little-candy-store-of-horrors]

@alisdairvalentine ask and ye shall receive Old Man Yaoi

[michamiw]

Happy birthday Remy! But you have to work overtime even on your birthday n.n (here a little extra for the b-day boy)

KEEP WORKING!

[stolenrocket218]

my god i hate men (yes i DID forget his mustache, no i don't want to talk about it. he is but a shell of his former self now)

anyway, behold. the trash man himself, Armand Moncharmin (MazM: Phantom of the Opera Edition). he's awful, and I love him (until I don't)

[winter2468]

You do or say anything to upset Christine and make it harder for her to achieve operatic greatness, I'm going to put your head through a wall, any wall, you can pick the wall, but it’s going to be a wall, OK?

Erik, to the opera managers

[arts-and-sharks]

Upon finally reading Phantom of the Opera, this is what I’ve gathered.

Warning: PotO spoilers

Erik: OG theatre kid. Sleeps in a coffin. Makes bouquets and sad music in his free time. Would beat every midwestern cowboy in a rodeo round up. So. So lonely. Actual cat

The Persian/ Daroga: trying to do the right thing by Erik. Spends a lot of time crawling around in the floor. Hold your hand at the level of your eye or so help me — Baby ™️

Christine: naïve but wants so badly to be kind to Erik as well. Her dad is dead. Used to be an amazing singer, then she couldn’t sing, now she can again (…sometimes).

Mme Giry: mother goose. WILL KICK YOUR ASS. three teeth.

Richard: hotheaded. Crab.

Moncharmin: probably smokes weed ngl. Needs a clothespin.

Raoul: die. Cry baby. So, so selfish. Just as insecure as Erik, but in different ways. I actually hate him. OG Jacob for Twilight (doesn’t actually care about love interest’s happiness, just wants her for himself).

[basterbinkers]

obsessed with how there's a scene in the phantom of the opera which involves moncharmin staring at richard's ass for several minutes straight (or gay)

[fdelopera]

Welcome to the 19th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part III of Chapter 8, “Où MM. Firmin Richard et Armand Moncharmin ont l’audace de faire représenter « Faust » dans une salle « maudite » et de l’effroyable événement qui en résulta” (“Where MM. Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin Have the Audacity to Have ‘Faust’ Performed in a ‘Cursed’ House and the Horrifying Event Which Thereby Ensued”).

This section was first printed on Friday, 22 October, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), the text starts in Chapter 8 at, “Moncharmin, ever a man for a joke, said, ‘Actually, quite a good house for a theatre which has a curse on it!'” and goes to Chapter 8, “But a few, who seemed slightly better informed, agreed that 'they'd kick up a storm' at the start of the ballad of the King of Thule, and hurried off to the subscribers' door to tell La Carlotta.”

Please note, however, that a large portion of this section was omitted from Leroux’s First Edition.

There are some significant differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) This section in the Gaulois was sadly cut from the First Edition:

The Persian was a living enigma who was beginning to annoy Paris. He spoke to no one. He never smiled. He seemed to love music since he attended all of the musical productions, and yet he was not enthusiastic, he did not applaud, and he never became impassioned.

Here is how M. A.D…, a former journalist who had been the Opéra’s secretary, spoke of the Persian:* “For many years, he has been sneaking his way through our Parisian lives, always alone, always silent, but loving and seeking out the crowds, displaying in broad daylight and by lamplight a stone-faced countenance and a slightly hesitant gait, and well, appearing at every performance with his perpetual attire, a Persian hat and a great, black houppelande coat,** in the sleeves of which he continuously wrings his unceasingly nervous hands.”

That evening, like every evening, our Persian was thus dressed in Persian attire; but the new Ambassador of Persia himself was dressed in the latest Parisian fashion, and there was nothing surprising about this, since he had come directly from London.

The seat occupied by the Persian was located right below the Ambassador’s box. At the close of the curtain, the Persian rose and remained standing, turning his back to the box. But certainly he would soon turn around, and the Ambassador would see him. What would he do? Would he recognize him? Was there even anyone in Persia who knew the Persian? There were those who said that he was a very important figure; well, they were going to see!

They saw nothing at all. M. Moncharmin relates in his Memoirs that the Persian appeared before the Ambassador of Persia without even acknowledging him and that there was in the demeanor of the former more aloofness and quiet disdain than usual. In this regard, M. Moncharmin writes that the Persian was one of the most handsome men that one could see, “of average height, with even features, an expressive and masculine face etched with a profound melancholy, with black eyes*** that are intense and sad, a jet black beard, and an amber colored complexion made golden by the sunlight of the Orient.” M. Moncharmin recounts that when the public’s attention turned to the Persian, one heard in the house the discrete sound of rattling keys. The spectators were wary of the “evil eye.” And he says nothing more about that incident.

When the Managers were once again alone in their box, M. Moncharmin said to M. Richard, still with a light-hearted air: (this is where the First Edition picks back up)

*NOTE: As revealed by Raj Shah in his article, “No Ordinary Skeleton" (read more about his research here), "M. A.D…" was M. Adolphe Dupeuty. He described a real incident which happened at the old Opéra Le Peletier in 1857, in which the Persian Ambassador attended a performance at which the "Persian" (Mohammed Ismaël Khan) was also present. This article was published in "La Vie parisienne à travers le XIXe siècle: Paris de 1800 à 1900 d’après les estampes et les mémoires du temps,” edited by Charles Simond.

In his “factional” style (fact+fiction), Leroux “borrowed” heavily from this article in writing his fictional account of the Persian and the Persian Ambassador. The quote from “M. A.D.” was taken verbatim from Dupeuty’s article.

**NOTE: This image below possibly depicts the outfit that Dupeuty was describing, and that Leroux copied into Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (Leroux described the Persian wearing a houppelande and an Astrakhan cap in his narrative).

This image is from Les Célébrités de la rue, by Charles Yriarte, published in 1864, a book that listed notable figures in Paris in the early to mid 1800s. It was published seven years after the incident described in Dupeuty's article, and so is reasonably contemporary with his account. It was also published during Mohammed Ismaël Khan's lifetime, as M. Khan passed away in 1868.

It is worth noting that the Opera House that M. Khan frequented was the Salle Le Peletier, which was destroyed in a fire in 1873 (five years after M. Khan's death). Two years later in 1875, the Paris Opera was moved to the newly opened Palais Garnier (aka Erik's Opera House). So, M. Khan never actually frequented the Palais Garnier, contrary to what Leroux depicts in Le Fantôme de l'Opéra.

***NOTE: Throughout the rest of the narrative, the Persian’s eyes are described as being “jade” rather than black. This was a case of internal inconsistency. In the Gaulois text of the chapter, "The Vicomte and the Persian" (as well as in the First Edition), Leroux described that the Persian had ebony skin and jade-green eyes (instead of bronze-colored skin and black eyes).

It is also worthy of note that the Persian as a character is an example of Lerouxian trope subversion. The Daroga is a foreigner and an outcast. The Parisian operagoers make no attempt at hiding their prejudice against him. And yet he is one of the heroes of Leroux’s novel, and he puts his life on the line to save the very Tout-Paris who rattle their keychains at him.

2) This sentence was cut from the First Edition:

Yes, this was the appointed replacement for the old madwoman, and with her in place, they would see if Box 5 continued to cause a sensation.

3) These paragraphs were cut from the First Edition:

None of the sounds of the sort that are heard at séances and which, as everyone knows, are generally attributed to interference from the beyond, resounded against or within the partition walls, the ceiling, or the floor; the chair upon which Richard was sitting behaved itself in the most admirable way possible, and the voice, the notorious voice, still remained silent.

The Managers were busy noting this, when the door of their box was abruptly flung open by the panic-stricken stage manager.

4) This sentence was cut from the First Edition:

They would see to this in a little while.

5) Sadly, this section in the Gaulois was cut from the First Edition, and replaced with a brief summary:

At this time, MM. Moncharmin and Richard descended from their box. The wings were already overrun. Having arrived on the stage, they headed immediately to the right, towards La Carlotta’s dressing room, whose windows overlooked the administrative courtyard. They then ran into La Sorelli, who was rushing to see the Comte de Chagny before he returned to his box.

They gestured to her, which she understood, for she straightaway left the Comte and came over to the two Managers who begged her to discretely ask the Comte about what might be the basis of the rumors of a cabal organized against La Carlotta.

While they awaited La Sorelli’s reply, they entered La Carlotta’s dressing room. The room was full of friends and comrades, and high above all the various conversations, one could hear the singer’s voice, which proclaimed a thousand threats against La Daaé.

Of Spanish origin, La Carlotta had retained an accent of a very particular flavor, and when some excessive emotion, like anger, hurried her speech, she expressed herself in such a way that it was difficult for those listening to refrain from smiling. And so despite the gravity of the situation, there were many smiles that evening in La Carlotta’s dressing room.

The two Managers approached the singer, who was in the process of placing upon her magnificent tresses, blacker than the night, another no less magnificent coiffure, paler blonde than the dawn’s first light. It was the wig with two thick plaits worn by the gentle Marguerite. The twinkling of La Carlotta’s jet black eyes stood out even more within this golden frame. She rose when she saw “these gentlemen,” and placing a hand upon her heart, she professed her sincerest feelings to the new management so passionately that certainly MM. Moncharmin and Richard would have been moved to tears if they had been able to understand a word of that astounding gibberish. Finally, she handed them a piece of paper whose writing in red ink had the effect of thoroughly commanding the interest of the two Managers. They had no difficulty recognizing it.

6) Minor differences in punctuation and capitalization.

Click here to see the entire edition of Le Gaulois from 22 October, 1909. This link brings you to page 3 of the newspaper — Le Fantôme is at the bottom of the page in the feuilleton section. Click on the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn the pages of the newspaper, and click on the Zoom button at the bottom left to magnify the text.

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

Susan Kay's 'Phantom' Read: Part V (Erik, 1856-1881)

Before we start I feel that I need to talk about a perspective shift that I've had. More than half-way through the book now with the completion of this episode I've come to a realization.

Phantom is not what I thought it was. This epiphany has been slowly dawning but here we are.

My impression of Phantom, based on how I have seen it talked about in the Phandom (and certainly how the reviews on the back of the book present it) was that it was Leroux's story but with the blanks filled in and a few small liberties taken.

I had this impression because I was told that for quite a few years, Phantom was basically considered Canon and also because I have often seen Kayrik (or Kerik) and Lerik (or Leroux's Erik) conflated in discussions.

But as I'm reading I have finally realised that I don't think this is ever what Kay intended.

Don't get me wrong I hate most of the decisions she's made, but this book is a complete re-working of the source material with many elements of the book, some from the musical and some original folded in. For Erik's history she mainly follows the life-history detailed by Leroux, but in terms of Erik as a character, he more closely resembles Musical!Erik than anything (except that Kayrik's deformity affects his entire face, not just half). When we arrive at the Opera, she again adheres to Leroux's history. But once we catch up to the canon events, this time line is swiftly abandoned.

Nadir and Erik bump into each other and resume their friendship.

A few weeks later, Erik finds Joseph Buquet's body in his torture chamber.

A few weeks after that Erik hears the news of the Opera's change in management, and hears Christine sing for the first time.

In the source material, Buquet's body is discovered on the same night as Christine's initial triumph (so three months AFTER Erik began to teach her), the same night that the old managers, Debienne and Poligny, have their farewell celebrations and hand over management to Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin. Leroux describes Raoul rushing across the stage, "On which Christine Daae has just triumphed, and under which Joseph Buquet had just died." [This excluded from the original translation.

Why Kay chose to alter the progression of events I don't know, but that combined with a final nail in this coffin for me to realise that I had been approaching this book from entirely the wrong perspective. That final nail is the fact that Christine Daaé, in this book, is dark- haired and not blonde.

Kay does what most Phan-author's do: she cherrypicks her preferred elements from both book and musical (Erik general erudite comportment, his mis-matched eyes, Christine's dark hair) and combines them with her own headcanons to create an AU fic that, because of the reclusive nature of Fanfiction at the time and the fact that this work was published and widely circulated, became, for many fans not interested filling in the blanks themselves, erroneously synonymous with actual canon for a goodly number of years, despite its open contradictions to the source material.

Does that mean I like it any better? Haha fuck no. My irritation with Kay's choices persists. It's just that my ire for this book's influence is more accurately directed at the Phandom at large for making it something of a Golden Calf.

And like the Biblical Golden Calf I am here to pound it into dust and make everyone drink it.

So at this point I was going to complain that Kay never made mention of Erik being Christened "the trap-door lover" in Persia. There's even a CHAPTER of Leroux's novel called "The Masterstroke of the Trap-Door Lover". And this didn't come up even ONCE in Nadir's narrative. In fact the Persian and Leroux's narrator both talk about how Erik "rigged the palaces". Which is to say he made alterations to existing buildings and "turned the most honest construction in the world into a demonic house where one could not speak a word without being watched, or betrayed by an echo. How many family quarrels, how many bloody tragedies had the monster left in his wake with his trap doors?"

In Kay's narrative, Erik doesn't alter any existing palaces, he only constructs the Trick Box inspired palace described in Leroux's epilogue and his love of trap doors? Apparently it just isn't a thing.

Moving on

So of course we have to come back around to his mother. That was inevitable and I do actually appreciate it because we know Erik's furniture in the lair was his mother's.

The part where he views his mother's body is... eighhhhhh.

Erik describes the ravages of time in Madeleine's face and also the ravages of death. He talks about the irony that there's actually some resemblance between them now. And we get... this

And as I looked at her, I suddenly understood her revulsion at last--because now I shared it!

I felt no anger or grief as I looked down upon her . . . nothing except a disgust which enabled me to forgive any act of cruelty that she had ever shown me.

[...]

I did not kiss her, now that I had the opportunity.

I knew that she would not have wished it.

And I no longer felt any desire to do so.

I'm deeply confused as to what Kay is trying to convey here. Is Erik really saying that he doesn't want to kiss his mother because death has made her ugly? He goes on a lot about how death is gross and ugly and like... you just found out that your mom never re-married after you left. Never left the house she raised you in.

The misogyny REALLY steps up to the foreground here as well. He says of his mother's friend, Marie Perrault (the only person in this entire book with any rights imho)

This nervous, anxious, well-meaning lady had taught me to respect all members of the weaker sex.

Which, simply by calling them the "weaker sex"... you clearly don't? And after proclaiming is respect for ALL MEMBERS of the weaker sex, in the NEXT sentence he puts in a caveat about how he's never harmed an innocent woman, and also says something about the Khanom that really made me very, very queasy, and also reinforced my squicky suspicions about why Kay chose to make the cruel and capricious female figure in Persia an older woman (a domineering mother) rather than Leroux's "Little Sultana".

Very annoyed how Kay has graduated Erik's voice from "Automatic Aphrodisiac" to "Literally indistinguishable from Jedi Mind Tricks".

Erik regails us with how, using only his voice he is able to "reduce certain men to a trance-like state of obedience" (once exhibited on Nadir and his son Reza). When he meets Nadir again in Paris we are treated to this observation:

"Do you understand, Nadir? Keep away!"

His hand slid him it carriage door and he stood back with a trance-like obedience. He made no effort to prevent the brougham moving away, but although I knew my secret was safe for tonight, I felt no sense of complacency.

Once before he had broken free of my control, torn down the swaddling cocoon of sound with which I had bound him. Unlike Jules [Erik's lackey], he was not a natural subject; his will was too strong, his sense of identity and purpose too well developed.

Whenever he chose to fight my voice, I knew I would be unable to hold him.

That's a Jedi Mind trick. I'm sorry it is.

This section is actually quite enjoyable where the building of the opera house is concerned, but it takes a downturn, both in terms of the story and just the quality of the writing.

There are two instances of redundancy.

His death excited little excitement.

"My old interest in divination had never left me, and from time to time I still consulted the tarot cards in desultory fashion. It had been a long while since they had revealed anything significant, but now of late, each time I picked a card at random I seemed to turn up Death...

And this latter example leads me to something that really made me want to throw the book.

Since Nadir's narrative I have looked askance at something that has come up repeatedly: Susan Kay goes to GREAT LENGTHS to ensure that the readers know that Nadir I 100% straight. NO HOMO HERE, DEAR READER. ABSOLUTELY NOT. She shoehorns in a dead wife that Nadir never got over losing, and went into unnecessary detail about how when Nadir feels "the itch of manhood" (🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮) he avails himself of a prostitute or an odalisque. It comes up SEVERAL times. And when Nadir pops back up in Paris she makes sure to tell us that he has a mistress that he sees regularly. All of this to bring us to THIS infuriating line:

And so even as I walked with Nadir, talked with him, rejoiced in the warmth of communicating directly once more with a human soul, there was a part of me that looked at him with suspicion and wondered what part fate had assigned him in this new, unrehearsed opera.

Not the Lover, that was for certain. I'd seen enough girls leaving his apartments in Persia to be reassured that all of his instincts were purely heterosexual."

I'm not generally into gay readings of PotO. I don't ship Erik with either Raoul or with The Persian. But I will say that if there is an argument to be made for anyone in this book being anything less than 100% heterosexual, it's The Persian. Leroux makes no mention of him having a wife or anything of the sort. Tie that in with the determined responsibility and complex bond he seems to hold with Erik and a case can be made for our dear Daroga feeling something rather more than just sympathy for Erik. (I don't personally subscribe to this, but the case can certainly be made--I'm more of a DaRaoul girl tbh. I think that's an untapped gold mine).

But not here. Kay bends so far backwards as to have Erik say outright "Nadir is defo straight", while (even more bafflingly) implying that, perhaps, Erik is not. WHY, SUSAN. WHY?

Christine’s introduction is the single most "reads like Fanfiction (derogatory)" thing I've read in this book so far, but I find it very interesting how, when Christine sings for the first time Erik says that she "possesses a near perfect instrument". He says her technique is faultless, and that there's no weakness in either register. My first problem is that Leroux's Erik only ever calls Carlotta's voice an "instrument", because that's all it is to Carlotta. My second is that, according to Christine, her lower register was muffled and her upper register was shrill and her middle register wanted clarity. Maybe that's just Christine being too critical of herself, but I doubt that she had "flawless technique" when Erik began teaching her. Incredible latent talent for sure, but I do believe that she needed help with technique as well as motivation to reignite her passion.

Lastly we have Erik's description of when he first sings to Christine. His narrative regarding his motivation is actually very similar to my own:

She wanted an Angel of Music--an angel who would make her believe in herself at last.

[...] There was no reason in the world why I could not be the Angel of Music to Christine. I couldn't hope to be a man to her, I couldn't ever be a real, breathing, living man waking at her side and reaching out for her. . . .

But I could be her angel.

Is his motive here altruistic? No. But the sentiment is sweet enough. The notion of inspiring Christine's self-confidence is present.

Pity then that he takes a sharp left turn in the very next paragraph and utterly compromises any positivity in his intent.

I could not steal her body--but I could steal her voice and weld it irretrievably with mine; I could take it, and mold it, and make it mine forever...

Softly at first, infinitely softly I began to sing an old, heathen, Romany song. The Hollowed bricks carried the haunting melody relentlessly to her, permitted my voice to envelop her gently like a poisonous mist, seeping inexorably into her mind and staining her soul with darkness.

Well, well.

Once more unto the breach I go...

Masterpost

[lot666achandelierinpieces]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all fans of the enigmatic world of "The Phantom of the Opera"

We are excited to present the first chapter of "Zariya Hollow - A Horror Anthology: Episode 13 - "The Ghost in The Opera House". This project, a labor of love spanning nine years, has been made possible in collaboration with phantomstheater.weebly.com. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Phantomstheater for providing access to their translation of the original Le Gaulois newspaper publication of Gaston Leroux's "Le Fantôme de l'Opéra", along with the comprehensive appendix. Discover more and stay updated at phantomstheater.weebly.com/Zariya-Hollow.

Zariya Hollow: Season 1, Episode 13 - "The Ghost In The Opera House" (Chapter 1)

In the gripping season finale opener, "The Ghost In The Opera House," we step into the mysterious corridors of Paris's famed Opera House, led by the enigmatic voice of Gaston Leroux. His narration not only brings the grand architecture to life but also whispers of the secrets and ghostly enigmas hidden within its walls.

This episode is a defining moment in the Opera House's chronicles, capturing the significant transfer of leadership from the old directors, Messieurs Debienne and Poligny, to the new custodians, Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard. The handover of the small master keys isn't merely a formal procedure; it signifies the dawn of a new era, riddled with unexpected challenges and eerie tales of a phantom lurking in the shadows.

As we navigate through Leroux's vividly painted scenes, we explore the Opera House's majestic underbelly, where the new directors grapple with the daunting rumors of a spectral inhabitant. Parallel to this, in the serene town of Perros-Guirec, another story starts to unfurl, intricately linking to the opera's own enigmatic saga.

Leroux's masterful storytelling skillfully blends reality with legend, weaving a narrative that captivates and haunts in equal measure. "The Ghost In The Opera House" is more than a tale of unspoken love and ghostly presence; it's an expedition into a realm where every hidden corner and echoing note tells its own story. As the tale progresses, Leroux sets the stage for a finale that is set to be as unforgettable as the legend of the Paris Opera House itself.

Tune in to this mesmerizing journey at anchor.fm/zariyahollow/episodes/Zariya-Hollow-S1Ep13--The-Ghost-In-The-Opera-House-Chapter-1-e2dlke1.

[spookycathymorshaw]

You'll find other Phantom of the Opera's polls in my 'gothic lit' tag or my pinned post.

[rougepancake]

Phantom Blood phantom of the opera au:

Dio as Erik

Jonathan as Raoul

Erina as Christine

Speedwagon as Richard Firmin

And Will Zeppeli as Armand Moncharmin

[amantesmultorum]

INTERACTION CALL

By liking this permanent interaction call you are giving me permission to invade your inbox, and notifications to send you memes and starters from the managers, Armand Moncharmin and Richard Firmin, whenever I may like. You may also reply to this if, you have multiple muses, if there is only certain muses of yours that you wish for my muse to interact with.

[britishchick09]

God i forgot armand moncharmins name is. That

Armand name jumpscare

book reference! ;D

[stolenrocket218]

whoa it’s ANOTHER fic. this one is just for shits and giggles!

all you need to know is that there is much dialogue and it’s Leroux canon. you can find the rest out for yourselves <3

[basterbinkers]

personally i think messieurs firmin richard and armand moncharmin were gay. not in love, but they definitely fucked more than once. this makes the phantom of the opera homophobic, which is obviously true and inarguable.

[fdelopera]

Welcome to the 20th installment of 15 Weeks of Phantom, where I post all 68 sections of Le Fantôme de l’Opéra, as they were first printed in Le Gaulois newspaper 115 yeas ago.

In today’s installment, we have Part IV of Chapter 8, “Où MM. Firmin Richard et Armand Moncharmin ont l’audace de faire représenter « Faust » dans une salle « maudite » et de l’effroyable événement qui en résulta” (“Where MM. Firmin Richard and Armand Moncharmin Have the Audacity to Have ‘Faust’ Performed in a ‘Cursed’ House and the Horrifying Event Which Thereby Ensued”).

This section was first printed on Sunday, 24 October, 1909.

For anyone following along in David Coward's translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (either in paperback, or Kindle, or from another vendor -- the ISBN-13 is: 978-0199694570), “The two Directors left their box during the interval to find out more about the cabal the stage manager had talked about,” and goes to Chapter 8, “The garden act unfolded with the usual turns of the plot.”

Please note, however, that a large portion of this section was omitted from Leroux’s First Edition.

There are some significant differences between the Gaulois text and the First Edition. In this section, these include (highlighted in red above):

1) This section from the Gaulois was sadly cut from the First Edition. It was replaced with a brief, one sentence summary — "The Managers left the box during the entr'acte to inquire about the tale of the cabal of which the stage manager had told them, but they soon returned to their seats, shrugging their shoulders and treating the whole business as so much nonsense":

"P. of the O.!... Always P. of the O.!" cried M. Richard, to the singer's great astonishment, and he asked for the envelope that she held out to him. The letter had been sent from the post office on the Boulevard des Capucines, a stone's throw from where the former Managers lived. Without saying another word, they left the dressing room; M. Richard was furious, convinced that MM. Debienne and Poligny had vowed to make a fool of him. That idea anchored itself conclusively in his mind when, after he had gone up to his office with Moncharmin, his personal secretary, M. Rémy, brought him an evening paper which ran an interview where M. Debienne implied that he would prefer to go bankrupt at the Opéra than to make his fortune there conducting himself "as a money-grubber." M. Richard assumed — quite mistakenly, of course — that this unwelcome opinion was directed at him, finding a connection between this interview and an article which appeared two evenings before in the same paper, where the new Managers were admonished for not attempting to produce anything interesting, for confining themselves to the same old shows, and ultimately for conducting themselves with the utmost frugality.

Shaking with barely contained fury, Richard turned toward Moncharmin and told his colleague point-blank that he found his face strangely placid for having gone through an ordeal as upsetting as this which they were obliged to endure.

"What ordeal?" asked Moncharmin calmly. "Is it P. of the O. who has put you in such a state?"

"Ah! It is indeed a matter of your Phantom!" replied Richard, enraged. "Don't you see that Debienne and Poligny are making a mockery of us? That they have organized a press campaign on the outside, a cabal on the inside, and that they are causing us a thousand different troubles!... I don't give a toss about your Phantom!"

As M. Moncharmin was about to protest his associate's claim, which attributed to him the sole ownership of the Phantom, the door of the Managers' office swung open and La Sorelli entered.

Moncharmin straightaway put on his monocle, in honor of the young lady's famous legs, clad in pink silk; but Richard immediately brought him back to the mood of the situation, which, if La Sorelli was to be believed, was more serious than one could imagine.

She started off by asserting that the Comte de Chagny had henceforth lost interest in Christine Daaé. She made this statement with all the more haste, since she had not been unaware of the Comte's enthusiasm for the talent of this little minx. But this enthusiasm had well and truly dried up. In short, the Comte had only agreed to get momentarily involved due to the entreaties of his brother, the young Vicomte, who had developed feelings for La Daaé which were truly ridiculous. The Comte now had a very dim view of the attentions that his brother paid the singer. As La Sorelli understood it, he had remarked about this to his brother, but the Vicomte would not be otherwise distracted, which must have greatly aggravated the Comte. As for the cabal, the Comte could not deny that La Daaé, whom he judged to be a little hypocrite and a trickster of the first degree, was capable of dragging his brother into such an affair, since he was a naïve and kindhearted child. La Sorelli did not leave the managerial office without insisting that these gentlemen have the utmost discretion regarding the "terrible secret" that she had confided in them, given that, if the Comte ever learned that she had thus abused his trust in relating such things which should be forgotten as soon as they were heard, he would never forgive her for the rest of his life.

Having said this, she withdrew and returned to the dance foyer. Men from the financial sector, the nobility, academia, the popular newspapers, and the political scene, represented by a deputy from the left, two senators from the right, and the personal secretaries of several members of the ministry, were whispering, giggling, and gossiping about the most beautiful legs in our National Academy of Music. Several coryphées, after glancing at themselves in the mirror, lifted their tutus with one hand, went up en pointe, lips puckered, and came down again, near to a cluster of young ladies where Meg Giry bitterly recounted the outrageous misadventure that had happened that very morning to her worthy mother in the managerial office. Naturally, as everyone had noted that MM. Richard and Moncharmin were attending the performance in Box 5, the primary cause of Mme Giry's dishonor and her daughter's despair, Meg's confidences were a tremendous success and once again, the talk was only that of the Phantom and his box, although the young ladies made a little sign of the devil's horns to ward off bad luck.

Suddenly, there was a great commotion and loud bursts of laughter. It was little Jammes who, followed by her comrades, "Nez qui danse" and "Jambe d'acier,"* made her entrance into the foyer. All three of them were leaning on pitchforks that they had retrieved from their properties. Thusly armed, they defied the Phantom and his maledictions, for he was capable of anything, they said, and he'd had the audacity to steal César, the white horse from Le Prophète, right under the nose of good M. Lachenal, who was worried sick because of it.

Upon hearing about this new exploit by the Phantom, the small army of terrified dancers tried to touch the wood of the pitchforks, and La Sorelli herself could not resist this superstitious temptation before going to rejoin the Comte de Chagny, who was standing in a corner, alone and quite concerned. Did he already foresee that the amorous affinity his brother had for La Daaé — an affinity that he had at first entertained — would descend into a formidable passion?

But where was the Vicomte? Leaning on an upright for a set piece that had just been put up — standing between an idling and melancholy walk-on actress, and a petit rat, who, far from her mother, was busy munching some nuts, and letting herself be charmed by a gallant old man — he was waiting for Christine to pass by. She would not be long, since as she was singing the role of Siébel, she had to be ready to go on stage when the curtain went up on the third act.

Just then, she arrived and passed close by him without seeing him, or pretending not to see him. As she passed by, there were some hostile whispers uttered by the friends of La Carlotta, but again it seemed that she had not heard them.

The Vicomte looked away, heaving a heavy sigh. He then saw the two Managers, who were looking at each other and whispering in each other's ear. He imagined that they were mocking him for his love. He blushed and walked away. The Managers left the stage as well, and went back up to Box 5.

*NOTE: There is a brief mention of similar figures of the Opéra's ballet in Sept ans à l'Opéra. Souvenirs anecdotiques d'un secrétaire particulier, by Nérée-Desarbres (Paris: E. Dentu, 1864, page 64)

2) This sentence is slightly different in the Gaulois text, as compared to the First Edition:

Mais personne ne put les renseigner, puis ils revinrent auprès de la tablette ; ils trouvèrent, à côté de la boite de bonbons anglais, un lorgnette.

Translation:

But no one could tell them anything, so they came back to the armrest shelf; beside the box of English chocolates, they found a pair of opera glasses.

3) Compare the Gaulois text:

Ils s'assirent en silence. (They sat in silence.)

To the First Edition:

Ils s'assirent en silence, réellement inpressionnés. (They sat in silence, genuinely unnerved.)

4) This line of Marguerite's in the Gaulois was omitted from the First Edition, but was curiously added back in by De Mattos in his abridged translation of the First Edition:

Je voudrais bien savoir quel était ce jeune homme, Si c'est un grand seigneur, et comment il se nomme.

Translation:

I should dearly like to know who this young man was, Whether he is a noble lord, and what his name is.

5) This sentence in the Gaulois was omitted from the First Edition:

Rien, ni sur la scène, ni dans la salle, ni dans la loge ne venait troubler l'ordre du spectacle.

Translation:

Nothing on the stage, in the house, or in the box occurred to disrupt the order of the performance.

6) Minor differences in punctuation.

Click here to see the entire edition of Le Gaulois from 24 October, 1909. This link brings you to page 3 of the newspaper — Le Fantôme is at the bottom of the page in the feuilleton section. Click on the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn the pages of the newspaper, and click on the Zoom button at the bottom left to magnify the text.