The opera house standing in Paris in the twentieth century had been rebuilt in 1860; the original had burned down in a great fire in 1763.
The vampire Giovanni had lost the bid back then. After that, he stopped designing entire buildings and became an interior designer instead.
Everyone had regrets in life. The desire to make up for them drove people to imagine, What would have happened if I had done things differently?
This was a city of memories, though not entirely of memories. "The future" was in it as well.
After the Royal Opera House fire of 1763, Paris had lost a place where the public could socialize. The king could watch operas at the opera house in Versailles, but no one else could. People desperately needed to find a replacement among Paris's countless opera houses for what had once been "the jewel in the crown."
Every opera house in Paris could be called the Paris Opera, but which one was the best?
The Three Graces had made the prince of Troy choose "the most beautiful goddess." In Paris, that power had been given to the citizens of Paris. This Paris Opera, brimming with Italian and neoclassical style, had been designed by Giovanni.
He knew every colonnade in the opera house, as well as its intricate backstage passages. He led Severus through an entrance reserved for actors and into the Paris Opera.
When Severus appeared inside the opera house, a dreamlike feeling rose within him. Well-dressed nouveaux riches and socialites linked arms with elegantly dressed ladies, dancing or chatting in the Roman-style atrium, while the singing of a soprano echoed all around them.
A massive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, illuminating the entire atrium. Polished stone sculptures stood on the stairway landings, nearly all related to opera.