The Legend
We can find another curiosity about the
Phantom's legend in Renata de Waele's relate.
It was published in the Journal Illustre of Cafe de
la Paix, Paris, in October/November 1993.
Renata was, for a long time, Public Relations at
the Opera Garnier and here it is her article in this
newspaper:
"In the last century, in a small village near Rouen,
Normandy, a little boy was born by the name of
Erik. No one seems to have recorded his record
name as, in that era, disfigured people did not use
their names. His face was hideously disfigured
and everyone reviled and tormented him. He was
abandoned by his parents at the age of eight
years old and left to fend for himself. When a
circus came near the village, he was capture and
put on display as a 'Phenomenon'.
When he was fifteen years old, he escaped from
the circus and left France for Persia (Iran as it is
called now) and worked as an entertainer at the
court of the Shah. He was then engaged to work
as an assistant to an architect who was specialist
in harems. During this time, he gained extensive
knowledge in architecture and after many years in
Persia, having now acquired more confidence, he
felt able to handle life in France. Erik returned to
Paris.
The main subject of conversation in those days
was, of course, the building of the new Opera
House. Erik decided to meet Charles Garnier and
offer his services. Charles Garnier was very
impressed with Erik's courage, given his terrible
affliction. He was even more impressed with his
great professional competence. He enrolled him at
once as a contractor.
Erik worked very hard, up to twelve hours at day
during the whole of the construction of the Opera
House. He also attended the inauguration
ceremony of a work he considered his as well.
He wore a mask to hide his asymmetrical face. He
also wore a dress suit, a cloak and a large felt hat.
Thus, he was seen on numerous occasions in box
five on the grand tier, where he indulged his love
of music.
It was here that he saw an extraordinary singer by
the name of Christine Daae (remember that Leroux
changed all the names). He fell deeply in love with
her. Shortly, afterwards Erik kidnapped Christine,
who was not found for three weeks.
In 1907, a man named Alfred Clarck, who was a
great art patron, made a donation to the Opera
House, consisting of an impressively large
collection of phonographic records of great
voices of the era, such as Caruso, La Patti, etc. on
strict condition that this collection was not to be
public for one hundred of years. He also left
instructions that opera should continue to be
played at the Palais Garnier. However, when the
new Opera House (Opera Bastille) was built, opera
was hardly played at the Palais Garnier.
There then ensued a search for a lace to house a
strongroom. A wall was demolished in the cellars
of the Opera and behind this wall, a small
apartment was discovered. It was fully furnished
and equipped. It appeared to have been
abandoned a long time ago. Curiously, there
seemed to be no entrances anywhere.
It was assumed that this apartment may have been
used by workmen during the construction of the
Opera House. It was decided that everything be
thrown away, to make space for the strongroom.
However, during the construction of the
strongroom, another discovery was made. The
corpse of a man with completely asymmetrical
features was found.
The skeleton was wearing a huge gold ring on his
left hand with the initials C.D.
These were obviously the remains of Erik, whom
they called The Phantom of the Opera. He must
have lived in the apartment, which he had ample
time to install during the construction of the
Opera when he was working on the foundations.
In 1989, the strongroom at the Opera Garnier was
mysteriously broken into, and some of the
phonographic records donated by Alfred Clark in
1907 disappeared.
His idyll with Christine however was of very short
duration. Christine left him after only three weeks.
Desperate and heartbroken, Erik walled the door
of the apartment and died there.
The macabre discovery caused a lot of sensation
and was greatly commented on by the
newspapers of that time.
Gaston Leroux was inspired by this facts to write
his novel".
This article was written by Renata in advance of a
special exposition programmed in 1994 at the
Palais Garnier.
You can hear the voices recordings here.
Please, don't copy this text without my permission.
We can find another curiosity about the
Phantom's legend in Renata de Waele's relate.
It was published in the Journal Illustre of Cafe de
la Paix, Paris, in October/November 1993.
Renata was, for a long time, Public Relations at
the Opera Garnier and here it is her article in this
newspaper:
"In the last century, in a small village near Rouen,
Normandy, a little boy was born by the name of
Erik. No one seems to have recorded his record
name as, in that era, disfigured people did not use
their names. His face was hideously disfigured
and everyone reviled and tormented him. He was
abandoned by his parents at the age of eight
years old and left to fend for himself. When a
circus came near the village, he was capture and
put on display as a 'Phenomenon'.
When he was fifteen years old, he escaped from
the circus and left France for Persia (Iran as it is
called now) and worked as an entertainer at the
court of the Shah. He was then engaged to work
as an assistant to an architect who was specialist
in harems. During this time, he gained extensive
knowledge in architecture and after many years in
Persia, having now acquired more confidence, he
felt able to handle life in France. Erik returned to
Paris.
The main subject of conversation in those days
was, of course, the building of the new Opera
House. Erik decided to meet Charles Garnier and
offer his services. Charles Garnier was very
impressed with Erik's courage, given his terrible
affliction. He was even more impressed with his
great professional competence. He enrolled him at
once as a contractor.
Erik worked very hard, up to twelve hours at day
during the whole of the construction of the Opera
House. He also attended the inauguration
ceremony of a work he considered his as well.
He wore a mask to hide his asymmetrical face. He
also wore a dress suit, a cloak and a large felt hat.
Thus, he was seen on numerous occasions in box
five on the grand tier, where he indulged his love
of music.
It was here that he saw an extraordinary singer by
the name of Christine Daae (remember that Leroux
changed all the names). He fell deeply in love with
her. Shortly, afterwards Erik kidnapped Christine,
who was not found for three weeks.
In 1907, a man named Alfred Clarck, who was a
great art patron, made a donation to the Opera
House, consisting of an impressively large
collection of phonographic records of great
voices of the era, such as Caruso, La Patti, etc. on
strict condition that this collection was not to be
public for one hundred of years. He also left
instructions that opera should continue to be
played at the Palais Garnier. However, when the
new Opera House (Opera Bastille) was built, opera
was hardly played at the Palais Garnier.
There then ensued a search for a lace to house a
strongroom. A wall was demolished in the cellars
of the Opera and behind this wall, a small
apartment was discovered. It was fully furnished
and equipped. It appeared to have been
abandoned a long time ago. Curiously, there
seemed to be no entrances anywhere.
It was assumed that this apartment may have been
used by workmen during the construction of the
Opera House. It was decided that everything be
thrown away, to make space for the strongroom.
However, during the construction of the
strongroom, another discovery was made. The
corpse of a man with completely asymmetrical
features was found.
The skeleton was wearing a huge gold ring on his
left hand with the initials C.D.
These were obviously the remains of Erik, whom
they called The Phantom of the Opera. He must
have lived in the apartment, which he had ample
time to install during the construction of the
Opera when he was working on the foundations.
In 1989, the strongroom at the Opera Garnier was
mysteriously broken into, and some of the
phonographic records donated by Alfred Clark in
1907 disappeared.
His idyll with Christine however was of very short
duration. Christine left him after only three weeks.
Desperate and heartbroken, Erik walled the door
of the apartment and died there.
The macabre discovery caused a lot of sensation
and was greatly commented on by the
newspapers of that time.
Gaston Leroux was inspired by this facts to write
his novel".
This article was written by Renata in advance of a
special exposition programmed in 1994 at the
Palais Garnier.
You can hear the voices recordings here.
Please, don't copy this text without my permission.
"Don de M. Alfred Clark / 28 juin 1907 / Caisse où sont enfermés les disques du
Gramophone".
Words that can be read at the metal box in Opera cellars
where the voices recorded are.
Gramophone".
Words that can be read at the metal box in Opera cellars
where the voices recorded are.
Some of the details from Renata's narration are
proved facts.
December 23, 1907 took place in the
undergrounds of the Opera a strange ceremony
where 24 discs of gramophone were buried;
whose resurrection, if we can say, will take place
only in hundred years. M.Charles Malherbe, the
eminent archivist of the Opera, commented on, in
eloquent and charming speech, this solemnity
scientific so in an original manner.
After having told the visit which made him, with
the library of the Opera, M.Clark, director of the
Company of Gramophone in Paris, its generous
proposal to offer an apparatus and discs enclosed
in one limps sealed whose key will remain in the
files of the library and which one will open in
hundred years.
In January 1908, a strange ceremony took place,
in the cellars of the Opera, around Pedro Gailhard,
the Opera director by then, and Charles
Malherbe, archivist, some rare privileged people
admitted to be the witnesses of a burial... Here, in
a box, a gramophone, and then, arranged like
ballot boxes in a columbarium, sealed metal
boxes. On these boxes, known names. But these
are not ashes that one piously collected there.
Not, which one buries in this day of January 1908,
are voices...
It will interest you to know that the discs are laid
out so as not to be in immediate contact the ones
with the others; weight resulting from
superposition would have been able, with time, to
deteriorate fine engraving which represents what I
will call the sound layout, and to thus
compromise the future execution. Moreover
between these insulated plates, it was necessary
to prevent the introduction of the air. The air is
the friend of all that breathes; it is the enemy of all
that don't live anymore.
Some of the recordings were opened in 1988. But
the rest was kept in the Bibliotheque National de
France. They were opened last 19th December
2007 in a symbolic ceremony at the Opera Garnier.
What happened with the strange apartment and
corpse discovered in the cellars of the Opera?
This is still a complete mystery...
proved facts.
December 23, 1907 took place in the
undergrounds of the Opera a strange ceremony
where 24 discs of gramophone were buried;
whose resurrection, if we can say, will take place
only in hundred years. M.Charles Malherbe, the
eminent archivist of the Opera, commented on, in
eloquent and charming speech, this solemnity
scientific so in an original manner.
After having told the visit which made him, with
the library of the Opera, M.Clark, director of the
Company of Gramophone in Paris, its generous
proposal to offer an apparatus and discs enclosed
in one limps sealed whose key will remain in the
files of the library and which one will open in
hundred years.
In January 1908, a strange ceremony took place,
in the cellars of the Opera, around Pedro Gailhard,
the Opera director by then, and Charles
Malherbe, archivist, some rare privileged people
admitted to be the witnesses of a burial... Here, in
a box, a gramophone, and then, arranged like
ballot boxes in a columbarium, sealed metal
boxes. On these boxes, known names. But these
are not ashes that one piously collected there.
Not, which one buries in this day of January 1908,
are voices...
It will interest you to know that the discs are laid
out so as not to be in immediate contact the ones
with the others; weight resulting from
superposition would have been able, with time, to
deteriorate fine engraving which represents what I
will call the sound layout, and to thus
compromise the future execution. Moreover
between these insulated plates, it was necessary
to prevent the introduction of the air. The air is
the friend of all that breathes; it is the enemy of all
that don't live anymore.
Some of the recordings were opened in 1988. But
the rest was kept in the Bibliotheque National de
France. They were opened last 19th December
2007 in a symbolic ceremony at the Opera Garnier.
What happened with the strange apartment and
corpse discovered in the cellars of the Opera?
This is still a complete mystery...
| The secret door at the Opera cellars which contained the recordings. |
14 June 1912, M. Berard, remaking the basses of the
recordings.
recordings.
Some of the opened recording, December 2007.
| Sandra with Renatta de Waele . |
Please, don't take this photos without my permission.
They're part of my personal research.
Copyright Ladyghost.
They're part of my personal research.
Copyright Ladyghost.
