The REAL STORY behind the FALLING CHANDELIER at Palais Garnier | The Phantom

The Chandelier
“The chandelier had crashed upon the head of a poor woman who had come to the opera that evening for the very first time in her life, and killed her instantly. She was the concierge…” - Phantom of the Opera
The fall of the chandelier actually mirrors a theater tragedy at the Opera Garnier. During a performance of Étienne-Joseph Floquet’s opera, “Hellé”, a short-circuit sparking a fire caused one of the counterweights of the 7-ton chandelier to fall into the audience.
A May 21st, 1896 issue of Le Matin (a newspaper where Gaston Leroux was moonlighting as the senior courtroom reporter) reported, “Five hundred kilos on a concierge’s head!”. In reality, a counterweight weight of less than 10 kilos had fallen and killed one woman: a concierge sitting in the audience named Madame Chomette.
Legend has it she was in seat no. 13.
There was evidence of a chandelier falling at the Théâtre-Lyrique on November 23 1888 (where Christine Nillson also debuted). It fell on a civil engineer named Alfred Obrecht, a 22-year-old civil engineer who occupied No. 116 in the 4th row of the orchestra. He suffered a skull fracture and was transported to Saint-Louis Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The show did continue that night on the advice that spectators did not suspect there would be fatal consequences.
“After watching the twitching body of M. Obrecht had been carried out, the director asked the audience whether the performance should continue. And the audience replied, “Yes!”
-Gaulois
Of Leroux: “He was a theatre critic and an opera lover, I believe. His imagination could run riot.” - Simmons “He always insisted the Phantom himself was real.”
-Simmons
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