After finishing reading Gaston LeRoux's Phantom of the Opera in which the author himself claimed the Phantom of the Opera was a real person named Eric, I did some research on this old legend myself.
It appears the novel was based on a real Opera house in Paris, France named Palais Garnier. This opera house has several stories of floors below it and an underground lake. It also has a giant chandelier that lost one of its weights and killed someone. It is said that this opera house is haunted, but there is no mention of it in this opera house as "theater people" are said to be very superstitious and will not do things that bring bad luck.
Marc Chagall's ceiling, repainted in a modern style and which is very different from the colour scheme of the rest of the building. At the center is the grand chandelier
The history of this opera house also includes two singers that resemble the characters in the book, Christine Daae' and Carlotta. The Christine character may have been based on a Swedish-born opera star Christina Nilsson, also known as Kristina Nilsson or Christine Nilsson.
She also married into high blood. According to Wikipedia:
Christina Nilsson was married in Westminster Abbey to the French banker Auguste Rouzaud, who later died in 1882. In 1887 she married Angel Ramon Maria Vallejo y Miranda, Count de Casa Miranda, who died in 1902. In correspondence, Nilsson often signed her first name as Christine, and during the last part of her life she was generally known as the Countess de Casa Miranda.
The character of Carlotta appears to be her rival, Adelina Patti, who was a very well known and successful opera singer.
She even had sisters who were singers and one was named Carlotta. Samples of her singing were recorded and can be heard on Wikipedia.
As far as Eric goes, there are rumors that a deformed skeleton was found on one of the floors below the opera house during renovations.
Links:
by Rita Jean Moran (www.thelibrarykids.com and www.hiddenhumanstory.com)
