The Witch of The Opera House

Posted: 07.30.2024 | Updated: 11.16.2024

Built in the late 19th century, this historic theater has long been a cultural centerpiece, hosting countless performances that have enthralled audiences for generations. However, beneath its grand façade and opulent interiors lies a chilling legend that has persisted for over a century—the legend of the Witch of the Opera House.

Who is the Witch of The French Opera House?

According to the lore, a young woman named Marguerite was an opera singer who, upon discovering her lover's affair, killed herself after placing a curse on him. Keep reading to learn more about this sordid tale. To see some of New Orleans's most haunted locations on a chilling ghost tour with NOLA Ghosts!

Opening Day

The French Opera House, designed by the renowned architect James Gallier, JR, was constructed in 1859. With its stunning baroque design, intricate frescoes, and a grand chandelier that glittered like a constellation, it was a symbol of artistic excellence and elegance.

The theater's early years were marked by a succession of triumphant performances and was the optimal place for entertainment. In the 1860s, a young woman named Marguerite made quite a splash on the scene as a performer at the French Opera House. She was no great singer but was quite beautiful and thus made a success of herself. As she aged, however, her career dried up quickly, as she had little other than looks to fall back on. Just as her hopes for a singing career vanished, tragedy struck; her husband was killed by yellow fever.

She put her days of performing behind her and opened a bakery with the meager inheritance from her husband’s death. It's said that her bakery was quite successful, so much so that she was able to hire another baker. He arrived, and she found him a very attractive young man. The chef quickly became her lover, and she kept him in high style. Soon, though, she began to feel he was drawing away from her. One night, she decided to follow him, and she discovered he had a new lover. It was a young woman closer to his age, who he was keeping in a second-floor love nest at St. Ann and Royal.

Marguerite waited beneath the apartment’s balcony and heard the young lovers talking. The young woman begged him to marry her, to which he replied that he would rid himself of “that old hag” soon enough. Marguerite waited until the apartment grew quiet. She crept upstairs, tightly closed the windows, and suffocated the lovers by turning on the gas in the apartment’s fireplace. She left, but not before slipping a note of apology for what she had done and was about to do between the bricks of the fireplace.

A Witch is Born

While she had been cheated, she was still in love with the young chef. She tearfully dragged her way to the French Opera House, and there she hung herself from the rafters with a bit of rope. From that date, in the late 1870’s, people experienced a disturbing haunting, which they called the “Witch of the French Opera House”. A mournful spirit dressed only in tattered cloth, she was seen dragging along the streets between the Opera House and the apartment where she had killed the young lovers. She was often heard wailing and screaming so loudly as to awaken the slumbering residents of the French Quarter.

The Opera House burned in 1919, but this spirit is reported almost nightly, traipsing between the two locations. In the 1950s, a workman renovating the former apartment of the lovers found her note of apology and, upon reading it, tossed it in the fireplace. The Witch of the Opera House was heard letting out one last otherworldly shriek and was never seen or heard from again.

It is believed that the fire destroyed the two things holding her to this world—the note and the Opera House—and finally freed her spirit. Curiously, though, while Marguerite herself seems to have moved on, young lovers at the corner of St. Ann and Royal still often report the smell of natural gas, though there are no gas lamps or fixtures visible today at that intersection.

Haunted New Orleans

The Opera House has since been replaced with forgettable bars and forgettable faces. It has lost its grandeur and romance, its passion and glory. Show tunes no longer linger in the streets, and costumed performers don’t line up across the stage for their final bows. What once was a place of classical music and luxury is now a place of neon lights and lounges filled with smoke.

Check out our blog to discover more haunted locations in New Orleans, and to see some of them in person, book a ghost tour with NOLA Ghosts!

Sources:

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