A film miniature set to classical music. Carriages arrive at the opera house. The audience rushes to the performance. Men and women scan the audience. The conductor enters the proscenium. The lights go out in the audience. Music rings out. Suddenly, an opera singer appears in front of the curtain. The startled prompter flips through the pages of the score. The singer approaches the prompter's booth and snatches the score from his hands. The scattered pages fall onto the disoriented orchestra. The stage manager lowers the curtain, but the singer violently pulls it back and steps onto the proscenium to sing her aria. The outraged audience protests, throwing top hats and umbrellas onto the stage. The discordant notes of the operatic aria reach the basement and awaken the Ghost of the Opera.
