zellephantom: Belle from Beauty and the Beast showing an open book to a sheep (Default)
zellephantom ([personal profile] zellephantom) wrote2019-01-10 04:54 pm

Phantom Thoughts pt. 17

I'm skipping chapter 6, since it's very short and I legitimately could not think of anything to say about it. For the curious, the chapter is basically the managers trying to figure out what's going on in Box Five while the Phantom scares them by somehow creating an illusion of statues laughing at them. Also, the managers resolve to sit in Box Five for the next performance of Faust. There was also some slight wordplay with Pandora's box and Box Five, which I highly approve of.

{"He has the chief management of the stable."

"What stable?"

"Why, yours, sir, the stable of the Opera."

"Is there a stable at the Opera? Upon my word, I didn't know. Where is it?"

"In the cellars, on the Rotunda side. It's a very important department; we have twelve horses."}

The new managers have been in charge for HOW LONG and they don't know about an important department and the at least 6 employees that work there??? Also why are horses such a necessary feature in operas that they need TWELVE of them?? Are there just a lot of horse-heavy operas in 19th century France that I just don't know about?

{"These are 'places,'" Mercier interposed, "created and forced upon us by the under-secretary for fine arts. They are filled by protegees of the government and, if I may venture to ..."}

So the GOVERNMENT did this? I'm just picturing government officials saying "Do you know what the opera house needs? HORSES!! At least TWELVE of them! And they need, of course, six stablehands to care for them!" "Simply genius! I shall implement this right away!"

{"Has Cesar been stolen?" cried the acting-manager. "Cesar, the white horse in the Profeta?"

"There are not two Cesars," said the stud-groom dryly. "I was ten years at Franconi's and I have seen plenty of horses in my time. Well, there are not two Cesars. And he's been stolen."}

I know the Phantom didn't leave a note, since there's such a mystery around this, but what if he *did*? Like this:

Dear stablehands,

Henceforth, Cesar is now MY little pony. Make no attempt to see him again.

xoxo the Opera Ghost
out_there: B-Day Present '05 (Default)

[personal profile] out_there 2019-01-10 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Henceforth, Cesar is now MY little pony. Make no attempt to see him again.

Hee!

Although that does explain how the Phantom got around Paris so easily, if you have horses already stabled at the opera house.
igenlode: The pirate sloop 'Horizon' from "Treasures of the Indies" (Default)

[personal profile] igenlode 2020-11-13 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
I assume the horses would be theatre-trained animals that could be trusted to walk on revolving stages, carry overweight tenors with the seat of a sack of flour and no idea how to mount, put up with ballerinas pivoting in front of them, etc. It's possible that this included ordinary work-horses as well in order to handle deliveries, scenery vans, and so on.

As to why they had twelve -- matching teams of different colours, at a guess? Little white ponies to pull fairy coaches and big placid animals for the conquering hero to ride in full armour?

It's not at all clear from the plot summary for Le Prophète (La Profeta) where César can have been required for that opera, for example, but his role was evidently a memorable one ;-p

(An interesting fan-theory is that the Meyerbeer opera being performed at eleven pm on the night when Erik threatened to blow up the entire Paris Opera and its audience was, in fact, Le Prophète, which ends with an enormous onstage explosion killing the entire cast. That would be typical of Erik's sense of humour, and account for the otherwise inexplicable delay and precise timing of his ultimatum -- it appeals to him to stage his act of self-immolation to coincide with the end of the next day's scheduled opera, and to turn the special effects into reality :-D)