Phantom Of The Opera: Prologue

(1919, Paris, France)
AUCTIONEER: Sold. Your number, sir? Thank you. Lot 663, then, ladies and gentlemen. A poster from this house's production of Hannibal by Chalumau.
PORTER: Showing here.
AUCTIONEER: Do I have 10 francs? 5 then. 5 I am bid. 6. 7. Against you sir 7. 8? 8 once. selling twice sold to Monsieur Deferre. Thank you very much sir. Lot 664 a wooden pistol and 3 human skulls...from the 1831 production of Robert le Diable by Meyerbeer. 10 francs for this. 10 thank you. 10 still. 15, thank you. is I'm bid. Going at 15. Your number sir? Lot 665 ladies and gentlemen. A papier mache musical box in the shape of a barrel organ. Attached, the figure of a monkey in persian robes playing the cymbals. This item, discovered in the vaults of the theatre, still in working order.
PORTER: Showing here.
(music box plays Masquerade)


AUCTIONEER: May I commence at 15 francs? 15, thank you. Yes 20 from you,sir. Thank you very much. Madame Giry 25. Thank you, Madame. 25 I'm bid. Do I hear 30? 30. And 35?
(Madame Giry shakes her head) Selling at 30 francs then, 30 once, 30 twice. Sold, for 30 francs to the Vicomte de Chagny. Thank you, sir.
RAOUL: (sung in head) A collector's piece indeed... every detail exactly as she said... Will you still play, when all the rest of us are dead...?
AUCTIONEER: Lot 666, then: a chandelier in pieces. Some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained. We are told, ladies and gentlemen, that this is the very chandelier which figures in the famous disaster. Our workshops have repaired it and wired parts of it for the new electric light. Perhaps we can frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination. Gentlemen!
(The cover comes off the chandelier and it lights up. The overture music starts.
As the chandelier is raised, the opera house becomes restored and we go back in time to the year 1870.)