---

[Christine]
Maestro?

[Carriere]
No. But he'll be back soon, so you must get out at once

[Christine]
Who are you?

[Carriere]
A friend. Gerard Carriere. We met at the bistro

[Christine]
Oh, yes. You said my voice reminded you of a certain singer

[Carriere]
That's right. Unfortunately it's reminded someone else of her as well, which is why you're in great danger. Come. I know the way

[Christine]
No, no, wait, please. Where am I?

[Carriere]
In the catacombs underneath the Opera House

[Christine]
This is a dream!

[Carriere]
Mademoiselle, believe me, for your life depends on it, you are not dreaming! Erik brought you down

[Christine]
Erik?

[Carriere]
Your Maestro. Most people know him as the Phantom of the Opera

[Christine]
I don't believe this

[Carriere]
You had better, unless you wish to stay down here with him forever, because I believe that's what he's planning!

[Christine]
What?

[Carriere]
He's in love with you. I'm sure of it. It has to be. And he has always been. That woman whose voice I said yours reminded me of? She was his mother. That's her portrait

[Christine]
What is this place?

[Carriere]
This is where Erik lives

[Christine]
Oh my God! Why?

[Carriere]
Why does he wear a mask?

[Christine]
He won't say. Only that I'll never see him with it off

[Carriere]
For which you should be grateful. If you saw, you'd know why he's lived down here. Erik doesn't understand your world! You must get out at once

[Christine]
No. No. I don't care what his face looks like. I've seen his eyes, I've heard his voice. There is kindness inside of him

[Carriere]
Of course. And there has always been. But his face is like death, and to know him you must also know his face. You must get out while you still can. Erik cannot be helped by anyone!

[Christine]
How do you know all of this?

[Carriere]
Because I am his father
His mother was already in the company when I arrived, but as a dancer, not a singer. No one knew yet that she sang. It was a time for great singing. The opera house had just been completed. I was eighteen, and had come as an apprentice to the manager. Belladova was the most perfectly exquisite woman I've ever seen

We lived only for the moment, and our passion swept us away. Why me? She could have had anyone. Why was it me? I asked her once, "Why on earth did you love me?"

And then something happened. So astonishing it made me wonder more about the wonder of her than her unlikely love for me. She sang

[Belladova]
La la la la la
La la la la la

[Carriere]
Never before had a voice
Like her voice ever been on a stage
Oh, it was more than a voice
It belonged to the world, it belonged to the age

It was a voice of absolute transparency and warmth. I had no idea she could sing at all. No one knew. At my urging she auditioned for the company

[Belladova]
La la

[Carriere]
She was hired. All was perfection. And then she said she was carrying my child and wanted to get married. Oh God, how I wished I could. But there was something I had not told her. I was already married. And she was not prepared for that. She prayed to the Virgin Mary for strength

Soon after that she disappeared. I searched everywhere for her, but in vain. Some months later I saw her buying herbs from a gypsy woman near Notre Dame. I hardly recognised her

I took her back to where she had been living. It was down here

[Baby cries]

[Carriere]
His face was like nothing I've ever seen. As beautiful as she had been -- that's how ugly Erik was. I think the hardest part for me was realising she truly saw nothing ugly in this child at all. To her he was beauty itself, and to him, so was she

[Belladova]
Oh, you are music
Beautiful music
And you are light to me

[Carriere]
Then one night, she died. As best I could I raised him myself. When he was eight he noticed his reflection in the lagoon. He thought he'd seen a sea monster. I fashioned him a mask, which made things somewhat easier. At least for me

At night he would cry. And those cries echoed up through the shafts and the cracks. I was not the only one who could hear. And thus the legend of the opera ghost was born

---

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