Erique Claudin

Erique Claudin

## Bio

Violinist Erique Claudin is dismissed from the Paris Opera House after revealing that he is losing the use of the fingers of his left hand. Unbeknownst to the conductor, who assumes Claudin is able to support himself, the musician has used all his money to help anonymously fund voice lessons for Christine Dubois, a young soprano with whom he has fallen in love. In a desperate attempt to earn money, Claudin submits a piano concerto he has written for publication.

After weeks of not hearing a response about his concerto, he becomes worried and returns to the publisher, Maurice Pleyel, to ask about it. Pleyel rudely tells him to leave. Claudin hears his concerto being played in the office and is convinced that Pleyel is trying to steal it; unbeknownst to him, a visiting Franz Liszt had been playing and endorsing the concerto. Enraged, Claudin strangles Pleyel. Georgette, the publisher's assistant, throws etching acid in Claudin’s face, horribly scarring him. Now wanted for murder, Claudin flees into the sewers of the Opera.

He eventually steals some food, a costume, and a prop mask that he uses to hide his face. Having been driven insane, he continues to work to make Christine a famous singer, drugging Madame Biancarolli during a performance so that Christine may take her place. He listens from the Opera's catacombs as she sings to the crowd, becoming a sensation in the process.

The arrogant and limelight-loving Biancarolli forces the Opera to make no mention of Christine else she press charges. Claudin then visits her in her room and orders her to leave Paris as a last warning. She tries to take his mask off, but he overpowers her, killing her and her maid. Baritone Anatole Garron chases him, but is attacked and nearly killed. Claudin eludes detection.

Claudin sends a note demanding Christine take Biancarolli's place. The opera owners feel this is the best course, so as to avoid any more deaths. Inspector Raoul Daubert insists however Christine not sing, because it is his duty to apprehend the murderer and that someone else must sing to lure him out. Reluctantly, the owners agree. Garron meanwhile has a plan of his own: to have Franz Liszt play Claudin's concerto to lure him out.

During another performance, Claudin sends another warning note before strangling a policeman and taking his cloak. He climbs to the chandlier and saws the chain, making it break and crash. During the confusion, Claudin kidnaps Chrsitine and takes her back to his lair. Raoul and Garron pursue him. Liszt begins playing the concerto, which Claudin recognizes and plays along. He asks Christine to sing. She does, but pulls Claudin's mask off, revealing his disfigured face.

Raoul and Garron arrive, but a misdirected shot causes a cave in, with Claudin apparently being buried under the rubble. As the men lead Christine out, she says the concerto was written around the melody of a lullaby she's known all her life. Garron reveals Claudin came from the same district as her (he had played the lullaby on his violin earlier in the film, revealing that district as his birthplace). She says Claudin was almost a stranger to her and yet she felt drawn to him with pity and understanding. She laments his death, and that he got to hear his concerto before he died. Garron assures her Claudin's music will remain while his suffering and madness will eventually be forgotten.

## Notes

* In the original script, Claudin was meant to be Christine's father, who abandoned her when she was a baby to pursue his career, and now works to advance her career to make up for what he did. This plotline was abandoned as it thought the romantic tension between the characters would feel incestual (though Claudin does at one point still call Christine "my child").
* At the end of the film in a shot of Claudin's mask and violin, there is the sound of moving rubble, suggesting that perhaps Claudin survived. There were plans to produce a sequel and bring Rains back, but in the end--largely due to Rains's unavailibility and story problems--the film *The Climax* instead featured a different storyline with different characters.