The Angel of Music, Part I: The Enchanted Violin

Christine Daaé, a beautiful child of eleven years, travels by bus from Chicago to Los Angeles with her widowed father, where he hopes to enroll her in The Belen Conservatory of Music as a scholarship student. Homeless and destitute, carrying everything they own, they arrive in Los Angeles and immediately begin working as street performers to earn money for food, making their way to Santa Monica, where Christine is excited to see the beach for the first time. Twelve-year-old Raoul Chagny, strolling along the Santa Monica Pier with his governess, is enraptured by this beautiful young girl who sings with the voice of an angel. Raoul, either heroically or foolishly, leaps off the pier into the Pacific Ocean to rescue Christine's scarf, floating away on a sea breeze, and the seeds of an enduring romance are planted. Christine and her father find lodging in the guest house of Professor Valerius, a university music professor, and his wife. Raoul, a promising violinist, is soon taking lessons from Daaé. The Angel of Music is loosely based on the novel The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, and is a current-day retelling in three parts of the timeless story. Part I: The Enchanted Violin, follows young Christine from her trip to Los Angeles to her audition for the conservatory.