La Pollera Colorá

Las Vegas
Inca
Exodus
Cielo Rojo

Eccles. 10:4

"If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences."

Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

Chess: "Las Vegas" "Nevada" "Cielo Rojo" "Inca" "La Pollera Colorá" "St. Martin in the Fields"
Quote: "Who was that shape in the shadows? Whose is the face in the mask?"

— Christine Daaé, The Phantom of the Opera

Was there a real Phantom of the Opera? Gaston Leroux wrote the novel of The Phantom of the Opera, publishing it first as a serial in 1909. Though it was not based on fact, he wrote an introduction supposedly explaining that he carried out his own inquiries into the strange events that had occurred in the famous Opera House in the 1880s. He wrote of visiting the huge underground lake where the Phantom hid and of stumbling upon the skeletons of "some poor wretches who had been massacred under the Commune in the cellars of the Opera." Although the book was far from a best-seller, in 1925 it was made into a movie, starring Lon Chaney, which was a hit. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a musical based on the story, which opened in London in 1986 and in New York in 1988. On this date in 2006, the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera surpassed Cats to become the longest-running show in Broadway history; to date, there have been over 9,100 performances. More than 100 million people have seen the show in 124 cities in 25 countries, and it's the highest-grossing entertainment production of all times.