The Phantom of the Opera: Facts and Fiction

The Opera House

The Paris Opera house or to be more exact the “Palais Garnier” was built in the 1860´s by architect “Charles Garnier”. Today it´s mainly used for Ballet, but it was still used as a regular opera house in Leroux´s time. Could a man have hidden and lived there? With a size of 11 000 square meters, and over 100 rooms this seems pretty likely. And just like with every other really big building it doesn´t take long until story about a ghost haunting the building start to be told. 

The Lake

There really is a lake deep in the cellars of the opera house. It was after the foundation was laid that water came in. The lake is used as counterweight for the stage.

The Chandelier Incident

Did the “Chandelier Incident” really happen? It did…but nothing as drastic as described in the novel. The chandelier didn´t crash into the audience, but one of the counterweights fell from the ceiling and killed one person. It was caused by faulty electric wiring. This must have been one of the inspirations for the novel.

Persons

Christine Dae

She probably was based on Swedish opera singer Christine Nilsson, who has astonishing parallels with the Christine described in the novel.

The Phantom (Eric)

He might have been based on Joseph Merrick, a disfigured sideshow performer. Its not entirely clear which disease he had, it might have been a combination of Proteus syndrome and Neurofibromatosis type I. Just as Eric in the novel, Joseph used a mask and worked at shows where he sometimes would be shown as some kind of “curiosity exhibition”. It´s said that when Alexanda of Denmark once visited him she touched his hand and Jospeh almost got a heart attack, for he never thought someone would bear to touch him. This might have inspired the scene where Christine kisses the Phantom.

Carlotta

There really was an opera singer of that name during Leroux´s time.

The Managers

The opera house really had two managers during that time.