Sándor Korvin, the conductor of the Budapest Opera House tutors his wife Elena as Marguerite in FAUST. She drowns herself after a bad review rigged by the sinister Baron Hunyadi, whose affections she spurned. When confronting Kraus, the critic, Korvin gets into a fight and a fire is started. Korvin kills the critic, only to have his face burned beyond recognition with acid that falls from a shelf above. He is saved from the inferno by a rat catcher, who takes him to a lair underneath the opera. Five years later, he becomes The Phantom of t983he Opera, a masked figure who causes havoc among the cast. Korvin spots Maria Gianelli, a chorus girl who bears a remarkable resemblance to his dead wife. He tutors her by day, while Maria's love interest, however, is with Hartnell, who has taken over