concept |

[enface]

ok but
- what if the phantom of the opera was a woman in modern day france
- who had gotten laid off from her job at the ballet
- because of mental health issues
- and to get revenge she moves into the underwater labyrinth beneath the palais garnier
- and just starts trolling everyone big time??

- fixates on a young ballerina, catherine darlan
- whom she gives private classes except the girl must wear a blindfold
- because the phantom can't stand eye contact anymore and also doesn't want to be seen
- uses her influence at the ballet to change castings and settlements
- always so that they benefit the dancers as much as she can possibly tweak it
- keeps the management fair and unbiased in their approach to the dancers
- and leaves small tokens for the dancers after performances so they understand their work is appreciated

- used to be a première danseuse at the company a couple of years ago
- but was fired because she went down with some kind of affective mood disorder
- without a job and soon forgotten by the other dancers, since someone else just took her place
- she decided to move into the space beneath the palais garnier, knowing her way around the theatre blind
- now she steers the whole company with invisible strings from below
- and has fallen obsessively in love with the little ballerina

- has contacts among the stagehands (yves) and spies in the board of directors (stéphanie + alain)
- used to practice martial arts (mix of taekwondo and kendo)
- has no living family, her colleagues at the ballet used to be her family
- has retained only one real friend after leaving the ballet, former danseuse étoile, marie-louise, who is now a teacher at the ballet school
- was the only child of a city councilman, sébastien legrand, and his opera singer wife who were both brutally murdered during a home robbery
- this happened ten years ago when ersilia was thirty and had just been promoted to première danseuse
- she was on a leave of absence from the ballet for a year after that, missing a whole season
- when she returned to work, she got gradually more moody, depressed, uncooperative and difficult
- eventually, when she was 33, her contract was terminated before she could be promoted to danseuse étoile

- the balcony is a theme, as this is where ersilia always sits in the audience during performances
- ending: after catherine by accident almost murders her, ersilia flees the theatre and starts over in a foreign city
- simultaneously she lets go of catherine who then manages to achieve success on her own terms, getting together with her colleague, Noelle, and becoming a prominent dancer side by side with her

- vibes: lupin (2021-), leroux's phantom of the opera