The story then follows the Opera’s

The story then follows the Opera’s newest singer, Christine Daaé, a pretty Swedish girl, who has a night of triumph in Romeo and Juliet when the Palais’ diva La Carlotta is taken mysteriously ill. While Christine performs, the young Vicomte Raoul de Chagny and his older brother Count Philippe watch. Raoul is smitten with the young singer and, after Christine faints after her performance in Faust, he ventures backstage to her aid, recognizing her as the young girl he played with as a child and whose scarf he had once run out into the sea to fetch. Christine revives, and sends Raoul out of her room. Later, the Vicomte, listening at the door of her dressing-room, hears a man’s voice speaking to her, praising her fine work, and telling her that she “must love him." After Christine leaves, Raoul enters the room to find it empty. The party for the retiring managers is joined by the incoming managers, M. Armand Moncharmin and M. Firmin Richard. They begin introductions, and suddenly, the Phantom arrives. He walks through the crowd and sits down, saying nothing and accepting no food or drink. Glances go around between the two pairs of managers, each thinking the other had for some reason invited this unexpected guest. The Opera ghost tells them that Buquet is dead (they did not know it before).