World of the Play: Micro View

Paris 1881

Electrical Exhibition
"From August to November 1881 the first International Electrical Exhibition was held in Paris at the Palais de l'Industrie with an associated international congress. Great advances in electrical technology, especially in electric lighting, had been made and the exhibition was the showcase for a new branch of engineering-electrical engineering."
http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/featured/paris-exhibition.cfm

Relevance: at the very start of the play, the chandelier is wired with the "new electric light" so that they could get an idea of how it looked.


Catacombs

"The Catacombs of Paris (the “municipal Ossuary”) have been created at the end of the 18th century. The cemetery of Innocent (close to Saint-Eustace, in the district of the "Halles") had been used during nearly ten centuries and had become the origin of infection for all the inhabitants of the district. After multiple complaints, the Council of State, by decision of November 9, 1785, pronounced the removal and the evacuation of the cemetery of the Innocent ones.

Old Quarries were selected to deposit Parisian bones; Paris indeed had just created the General Inspection of the Quarries charged of the consolidation of the public highways undermined by the Quarries. The Quarries “of Tombe-Issoire” were the object of work including masonry and consolidations of galleries, and by the digging of a flanked staircase.

The removal of the bones began after the blessing of the place on April 7, 1786 and was continued until 1788, always at night and according to a ceremonial made up of a procession of priests who sang the burial service along the way borrowed by the tipcarts charged with bones and covered with a black veil. Thereafter, this place was used, until 1814, to collect the bones of all the cemeteries of Paris."

http://www.catacombes-de-paris.fr/english.htm

Relevance: Erik, the Phantom, lives in the Paris Catacombs and takes Christine down with him.


Opera Garnier
"The Palais Garnier, also known as the Opéra de Paris or Opéra Garnier, but more commonly as the Paris Opéra, is a 2,200-seat opera house on the Palace de l'Opera in Paris, France. A grand landmark designed by Charles Garnier in the Neo-Baroque style, it is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of its time."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier

Relevance: Nearly all of the Phantom of the Opera takes place in the Opera Populare, which was inspired by the Opera Garnier.

The title of Vicompte
"As a rank in British peerage, it was first recorded in 1440, when John Beaumont was created Viscount Beaumont by King Henry VI. The word viscount corresponds in Britain to the Anglo-Saxon shire reeve (root of the non-nobiliary, royal-appointed office of sheriff). Thus early viscounts were originally normally given their titles by the monarch, not hereditary; but soon they too tended to establish hereditary principalities lato sensu (in the wider sense)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicomte

Relevance: Raoul, who is a new patron of the Opera Populare, holds the title of Vicompte de Chagny.

Paris Cemeteries (specifically Pere Lachaise)

"Père Lachaise Cemetery French: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise; officially, cimetière de l'Est, "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France at (48 ha, 118.6 acres), though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.

Père Lachaise is one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. Located in the 20th arrondissement, it is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the graves of those who have enhanced French life over the past 200 years."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Lachaise_Cemetery

Relevance: Christine visits a cemetery in the second act, where she goes to visit her father's grave, but is entranced by the Phantom.

(not done)