The OPERA HOUSE part 1 and 2

Jimmy Loong

An attempt to adapt from the classic

June 8^th 2017

Characters

Emil: The "Phantom of the Opera", also referred to as the "Angel of Music" and the "Opera-Ghost." He tutors and eventually becomes obsessed with Christine Daaé.

Christine Daaé: A young soprano at the Paris Opera House with whom "The Phantom" falls in love.

Vicomte Raoul de Chagny: Christine's childhood friend and love interest.

Comte Phillipe de Chagny: Raoul's older brother.

Armand Moncharmin and Firmin Richard: The new managers of the opera house.

Madame Giry: Christine's mother, the keeper.

Lenier; the janitor at the Opera House

Debierne and Coligny: The previous managers of the opera house.

Joseph Bouquet: The chief scene-shifter.

Carlotta: A spoiled prima donna; the lead soprano of the Paris Opera House.

Madame Valerian: Christine's elderly guardian.

Jean Valerian; Christine mentor.

The Book of Stars and Emerging ones

1.

The pudgy man who claimed to be a chef from the finest restaurants had much to allay any listeners of his claim. He had the looks of one with the rounded girth and the snarling expression but his clothing betrayed him more for a butcher than the meat cuisine performer. However he did held himself esteemed that he worked in a kitchen although it was for an Opera House where his position was to watch over the pots. One of his usual tasks was to take the leftovers in a huge pot to the disposal area.

It was called the pit.

The place was as mentioned before, but during that period, leftover food was still essentially food for the ones who needed to eat. However the pudgy man was a selfish bastard. He preferred to cart them to the hidden residents that were termed as pestilence by the many but to him they were the ones that liked his cooking.

“Here’s dinner. Eat well.” The pudgy man had climbed down four levels of stairs to the sub-levels with each step taken with great heaving given his health condition. The man poured the content into the catacombs there which was part of the tunnels below the city. The rodents came out by the dozens; they need not fear or required any invitation for that level was their domain.

Well domain can be invaded.

The eyes pupils dilate in the dark but the figure stayed in the shadows. It was not rushing out like the rodents but it will wait for the intruder to leave. Patience was a virtue he did not learned but from the beatings and humiliation. His retaliations will come in more severe manner but it takes patience to wait it out. The pudgy man had taken the last step and it was time to appear then. The rodents did not make way for they have shared their spoils many times. The shadow moved and with it a lean figure emerged.  The shape rushed forward in a crouch like position, and it bend down to grab the pieces to feed. Food even on the unhygienic flooring would still get digested in the stomach, and it may come out sooner with the waste. A rodent rushed for the same piece reached by the figure but the later won. It was the odds of being smaller in strength. The figure then munched on the won morsel before it hummed the lyrics of ‘Faust’.

Le veau d’or est vainqueur des dieux!              The calf of gold is the victor over the gods!

Dans sa gloire dérisoire,                                     In its derisory (absurd) glory,       

Dans sa gloire dérisoire,                                     In its derisory (absurd) glory,       

Le monstre abject insulte aux cieux!                The abject monster insults heaven!

Il contemple, ô rage étrange!                             It contemplates, oh weird frenzy

Act II of the French opera Faust by Charles-François Gounod

Libretto: Jules Barbier

That was his moment of joy for the figure seated there on the flooring. He took a breath besides consuming the daily food for the he could taste. Both came with the residence benefits.

………

The man cursed at the pot he had carried from the lower basements. He dreaded the works he does but it was paying for his room and food. The later was aplenty and the reason was there then in front of him. He had stepped into the world of the affluent living and there was the two happiest couple alive. They were a couple for they had spent their last ten years there managing the place and then having sold it was a relief for them.

“Monsieur Lenier, do you still have any of the lamb stew?” The one was seated there on the left was a huge man short cropped and tight tweed suit was who requested for extra helpings.

“Debienne, please stop. You already had four servings and the ….” The one seated on the right protested on the request. He was named Coligny but everyone called him Sir. He was after all the previous owners or would be when it hits the stroke of midnight. The man was half the size of the other and his diet was equally well matched but their dressing was matching which made them perfect partners. The speculation on the couple came from that but they were none matching on the marital level. They were just partners in the same investment.

Lenier placed the pot into the cleaning area. His work area was a combination of a kitchen, cleaning and dining which the duo loved to sit at on the small table. They could afford a huge opera house but they had to save on a proper dining area. He squeezed his way past the two seated figures to check on the other pot still on the stove. The fire was turned off there but the food was still warm. There was not much there but it was reserved for him. He had saved it for someone else.

“Lenier, I asked you…” Debienne voiced out again while he glared at his partner.

“I heard you, Monsieur but there is none left.” Lenier turned to his yet to former employer. “You might want to try the celery sticks. They are brought fresh from the market.”

“Aha! I like that.” Coligny laughed out loud. “Mon dieu! I never felt so much relieved now we will no longer be owners.”

“And the eerie noises. I will miss those.” Debienne added on. “Whoooo… I loved those moments.”

“That’s enough, Sir.” The voice belonged to Madame Giry the dancer coach and almost anything that needed mothering there. The lady with the perky nose wore her rounded rimmed glasses perched there was a tall one with the hair swept back into the bun at the top of the head, and dressed in the body fitting blue dress and flat shoes. She strolled over as if she was walking on air with each step well placed and without a sound.

“The Phantom cannot be mocked, Sir. Not so when you are no more its patron of the Opera House.” Madame Giry was never one to hide her remarks be it good or bad. She had served the one other owner besides these two, and her position in the House was explicitly spelled as ‘must have’ in nicer terms or obstinate in cruder form.

“Humph!” Debienne mocked back but the other kinder partner offered the apology.

“We shall be gone soon. All the best to your new benefactor.” Coligny wished upon the lady. He then sighed and looked at the place he had spent over ten years. It was ten good solid years to keep the Opera House alive. He was given a heritage of the City and was advised then by the Maire of Paris.

“Next to the Eiffel Tower, the Opera House is one of its wonders here in Paris. It’s a symbol of culture and tradition like the Notre Dama Cathedral, the Lourve or the Sacre Couer Basilica.” The Maire of Paris then heaved in some air into his empty lungs before he continued on. “It had housed the greats of Wagner… Siegfried… Carme…the L’etoile and many others. It must …”

Coligny kept the music and audience coming to the place. He had seen Faust, Manon by Massenets, and even the Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky. Alas, there were great performance but the city have its other splendour which have taken over the attention to the House. The revenues were still there, but the call to pull the curtain on the owners was due. It was age and health that veiled their minds for some months. Debienne had developed some health issues and his call to ret in the country side was recommended. The man denied it but the call was made by Coligny.

“Madame Giry, we are leaving now.”

2.

For someone not familiar with the back stages of the House they would not have known Madame Giry. The lady sat herself by the table while Lenier served her the last of the stews. It was not a great meal but it was better than the one she would have done.  It was not easy to be a lady who held many roles including coaching a group of twenty five dancers then and managing a daughter who never knew her father.

“Your meal, madame.” Lenier took pride in his serving then, and more so for the lady he had taken an interest from afar. “I added in a slice of bread.”

The lady looked at the meal served and frowned at the bread. The bread was essential for her wellbeing but she had taught many of her students to watch their weight with starchy food like bread. She had maintained her frame from her earlier days as a ballerina with her strict diet. Those were the days of her life when her dance movements held her attractions to the audience. She was named the Graceful Stork, more so for her perky nose which many had compared to that bird species. Or by her envious peers as the Graceful Pelican. She was ever conscious of her body frame and practised hard to maintain it.

Her glamour drove many of the men to knock on her dressing door with gifts and accolades. There were offers too to be swept off her feet and be a companion of these men but her beauty attracted all ages. She was then not keen to be with any of them but for a young man with the brigade colours on his shoulder lapels. His appearance to her then was to sing the chorus from Carmen.

Avec la garde montante,
nous arrivons, nous voilà.
Sonne, trompette éclatante !
Taratata, taratata !
Nous marchons la tête haute
comme de petits soldats,
marquant sans faire de faute,
une, deux, marquant le pas.
Les épaules en arrière
et la poitrine en dehors,
les bras de cette manière
tombant tout le long du corps.
Avec la garde montante, etc.

The lady had then been taken aback by the uniformed officer giving her a sing of the lyrics from Carmen. She did not know why then but her feet moved to his singing and soon they were dancing on the cobble stones on the street of Paris. It was like it then whenever he arrived to see her. He was a fine gentleman waiting in line for the other admirers to take their turns with her and be spurned later before he emerged holding the flower and humming a song.

“My lady, you complete my love for music. That one held half my heart while your beauty occupied my other half and all other parts of my body.” Those were sweet words from the man whom she later named her hero of her life then. He held no great wealth or fame but the patience to walk with her along the dark streets offering his gallantry to protect her from any harm. His visits were many when he was in Paris but the calling of a commissioned officer also entailed him been away for weeks. The courtship went on for two years before he asked her to wait for him. She did and it was another two years before he offered her the ring to be his companion as Madame Giry.

So the dancer became Madame Giry.

Major Fabian Daae Giry of the French Dragoon. She moved into his home; a small apartment in the suburbs where they planned their family. Her dancing performance had taken a break soon after her marriage. It’s sad world in the celebrity world when your fame was only as good as your appearance. The prints had one stage featured her not of her dance but her disappearance from the stage. The prints were speculative and even rumoured that she had lost her footing. Soon her absence made her incognito to the world but she had no regrets then for love was engulfing her.

It matter not to her then for she was contented with her life. She soon told him of the good news. She was with his child but it carried him sadness that he was to join in a campaign at the borders.

L’amour! L’amour! L’amour! L’amour!

L’amour est enfant de Bohême,
Il n’a jamais jamais connu de loi.
Si tou ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime.
Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!

It was her declaration of her love to him. The love was strong but the lover had to leave that evening for his brigade. He did with a heavy heart while she bid him farewell with a swollen frame. The hard labours that came with the birth of their child was borne with love but the news came soon to shatter it.

“Major Giry had succumbed to his wounds in the battle.”

A lady without her companion and a child without a father then found it hard to live in Paris. The mother of the child without any relatives then soon found the pension and wealth of her husband may sustain her life but it was not to bring happiness.

She named the child; Christine Daaé.

It broke her when the child asked her of the never seen father. The young widow was met by other suitors then but she could not bear the idea of loving another man. It took her another two years to realise her true happiness was on the stage when she was performing. With that, she took her life back to the stage but the stage was not ready to accept her then.

“My dear Stork, you are …how may I put it…too much weight.” It was the message that she had to earn her place to be on the stage. She tried but the weight on the legs will not work for her like before. She tried harder but it won’t work so she was offered another task.

She could work there as the assistant to the Coach. It was the next best thing. She began teaching the younger dancers.

She will create a new Dancing Stork.