The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, it tells the tragic story of beautiful soprano Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.
The musical opened in London's West End in 1986 and on Broadway in New York in 1988, in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring English classical soprano Sarah Brightman (Lloyd Webber's then-wife) as Christine Daaé, screen and stage star Michael Crawford as the Phantom, and international stage performer Steve Barton as Raoul. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, with Crawford winning the Olivier and Tony for Best Actor in a Musical. A film adaptation, directed by Joel Schumacher, was released in 2004.
n the year 1919, the Paris Opéra House hosts an auction of old theatre memorabilia. Among the attendees is an aged Raoul de Chagny, who purchases Lot 665, a papier-mâché music box with a monkey figurine. He eyes it sadly, cryptically observing that it appears "exactly as she said". The next lot Lot 666 is a broken chandelier, portions of which have been renovated with electrical wiring. The auctioneer states that this chandelier was involved in a famous disaster, connected to "the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained". He commands the auction assistants to turn on the power and light up the chandelier for all to see. As the overture plays, it flickers to life and ascends to the ceiling, as a transition back in time restores the opera house to its former grandeur ("Overture").
