S1E01 An introduction by J.L. Croze

Over a hundred years ago Gaston Leroux wrote the story of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra. It was published as a feuilleton in Le Gaulois, from September 1909 to January 1910. Afterwards it was published as a book. This book inspired a silent movie in 1925 and was later adapted as a Broadway musical in 1986. In 2004 the musical version of the story was turned into a movie.

In the introduction of his book Leroux assures the reader that the disasters at the opera house did happen and that the opera ghost really did exist. He has come to believe in the reality of this mystery after hours of interviewing a number of eyewitnesses. However, he only started these investigations some thirty years after the alleged events took place, which gives plenty of time for facts to be twisted into exaggerations, or to be mixed up with made up stories and uninformed gossips.

One of the people who Leroux thanks in his book is his friend and former collaborator monsieur J.-L. Croze, who "allowed me to dip into his splendid theatrical library and to borrow rare editions of books by which he set great store."

A former collaborator? Was there someone else working with Leroux investigating the mystery of the opera ghost? Yes, there was, and this monsieur Croze had already written down most of his own discoveries as well.

Croze started his investigations right after a mysterious fire burned the Parisian operahouse down to the ground in October 1873. He collected many facts and stories concerning the opera ghost straight away, long before Leroux had interested himself in the matter. He interviewed with many important eyewitnesses who had already died by the time Leroux started his investigations more than thirty years later.

Thirty six of these stories were published in Le Correspondance, from 1873 up to January 1875, at which point the new operahouse opened its doors and all stories and mysteries concerning the former operahouse instantly ceased to be of any interest to the public.

This public interest was rekindled however, when in 1909 a body was found in the cellars of the operahouse of which many instantly claimed that it was that of the opera ghost. All Paris was suddenly ringing again with stories of the opera ghost, and many amateur researchers jumped to the occassion to collect as many of these stories as possible and to try and sell them to periodicals. Leroux was one of them.

Croze was approached not only by Leroux to help investigate the mysteries (to which he agreed), but also by the Revue du Monde to write down and deliver more original stories and help meet this great sudden demand. Croze obliged, and published twelve more stories concerning the operaghost in the forementioned periodical from January 1909 up to the unexpected and disastrous outbreak of the First World War in July 1914.

Croze still had a handful of stories left and only decided to publish them many years later, after going to the cinema in 1925 and seeing the very first movie about this operaghost. After watching this he decided now was the time to finally present to the public those last eight stories concerning the operaghost, something that for his own reasons he had been unwilling and unable to do for many years.

Altogether the oeuvre of Jean-Luc Croze consists of 56 short stories concerning the Phantom of the Opera, just as many as the 56 short stories of Sherlock Holmes and somewhat resembling the complicatedness of the main character.

Dettagli