Page 162 - HandbookMarch1

7
Dorota Babilas
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The hidden signatures – in the Rotonde des Abonnés, in the gilded Avant
Foyer – the initials concealed on the grandest plafond of the splendid Grand Foyer,
the portraits tucked into the corner of Paul Baudry’s allegorical Parnassus – all
this, plus the ubiquitous motive of the mask, seems to suggest a complex puzzle
designed by the architect as the Opera’s host and master of the ceremonies. His
gilded bust casts a discrete supervisory glance upon the crowd promenading the
Grand Foyer. Garnier appears here in the guise of Mercury – the guide of souls, the
protector of tradesmen and thieves, the intermediary between the world above and
Hades, the god of jokes and traps. Opposite him, across the hall, stands a similar
bust of his wife Louise disguised as Amphitrite, the faithful wife of Poseidon. Is
this Garnier’s answer to the world’s grumbling that an ugly man is unworthy of
love?
The Garniers were both ardent admirers of the operatic art; they bought yearly
subscriptions for the use of a box, a modest one numbered 5 on the ground floor.
This is not the famous Box Five which in the novel was to be left unsold for the
exclusive use of the Phantom. The Grand Tier boxes, notwithstanding the one
situated right next to the Emperor’s private box, were far beyond the financial
reach of even a successful architect. Still, I think, the number used in the novel
is not coincidental. Just as in Notre-Dame de Paris the printed Bible was to
replace ‘the Bible in stone’, that is the Gothic cathedral, the novel of Gaston
Leroux aspires to become the literary monument and homage to the Palace Garnier
and its maker.
So, Erik the Phantom remains a palimpsest, a compilation – an architect,
musician, illusionist and circus freak whose fictional biography mirrors many real
lives of his contemporaries. Fate did not provide him with an author of Victor
Hugo’s class who would have made him akin to Quasimodo or Gwynplaine or,
perhaps, would have reached even deeper, to the cruel and tragic anti-heroes of
Shakespeare and the Gothic novel; a writer who might have given him the soul
and flair worthy of grand opera. Still, the power of the tale dismissed as a penny-
dreadful does not seem to diminish in time. Quite on the contrary – the characters
created by Leroux have become the mainstay of modern popular culture. The sheer
amount of adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera in all possible media is hard to
overlook, and although not all of them use the Palais Garnier as their background,
the Paris Opera’s fame lives on.

Notes