[00:00.00]Phantom of the Opera - PROLOGUE [00:01.00] [00:01.50]THE STAGE OF THE PARIS OPERA, 1905 [00:02.00](The opera house is being auctioned off. RAOUL is seventy now) [00:02.50]AUCTIONEER: Sold. Your number, sir? Thank you. [00:08.93]Lot 665, ladies and gentlemen: [00:12.03]a papier-maché musical box, in the shape of a barrel-organ. [00:16.10]Attached, the figure of a monkey in Persian robes [00:19.11]playing the cymbals. This item, [00:21.36]discovered in the vaults of the theatre, still in working order. [00:26.63]PORTER: Showing here. (He sets it in motion) [00:28.68]AUCTIONEER: May I start at 20 francs? 15, then? 15 I am bid. [00:32.92](The bidding continues. RAOUL buys the box for 30 francs) [00:37.40]Sold, for 30 francs to the Vicomte de Chagny. Thank you, sir. [00:42.59](The box is handed across to RAOUL. He studies it) [00:47.92]RAOUL (quietly, half to himself, half to the box) [00:49.92]A collector's piece indeed . . [00:55.09]every detail exactly as she said . . . [01:00.59]She often spoke of you, my friend .... [01:04.11]Your velvet lining, and your figurine of lead... [01:10.67]Will you still play, [01:13.00]when all the rest of us are dead? [01:19.19]AUCTIONEER: Lot 666, then: a chandelier in pieces. [01:23.66]Some of you may recall the strange affair [01:26.07]of the Phantom of the Opera: [01:28.15]a mystery never fully explained. [01:30.30]We are told ladies and gentlemen, [01:31.99]that this is the very chandelier [01:34.09]which figures in the famous disaster. [01:37.67]Our workshops have restored it and fitted up parts of it [01:41.07]with wiring for the new electric light, [01:43.16]so that we may get a hint of what it may look like when re-assembled. [01:47.74]Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many years ago [01:51.99]with a little illumination, gentlemen? [01:52.50] [01:53.00]LRC: yangchencen