Princess+theater+haunted+history



Melbourne's Princess Theatre houses the ghost of Federici (Frederick Baker), an Opera singer in the eighteen hundreds.

The story:

 In 1888, in the Princess Theatre, there was an Opera playing called Faust. Federici was playing a character called Mephistopheles, another version of the Devil, and near the end of the performance, Federici was to go down a trap door which was to represent Mephistopheles going down to Hell with another character, Faustus,'s soul. On one night, the 3rd March 1888, as he was going down the trapdoor, Federici had a massive heart attack. The theatre staff tried to stabilize him but it was too late, Frederick Baker had died. When the theatre staff told the other actors of his death after the play had finished they were confused. They told the staff Federici couldn't have died, he had been just up on stage with them to take the final bow. The staff asked the audience if they had seen Federici taking the final bow and they claimed they had. That was just the first of the sightings.

=Sightings of the ghost:=

There have been many sightings and signs of Federici's ghost since then. It's been said that on the nights after Federici's death, the actor who took his role felt himself being pushed back whenever he tried to take the final bow.

The ghost is normally seen in the dress circle and roaming the halls of the theatre. It is actually perceived to be good luck to see Federici's ghost on the opening night of a performance so people leave a seat free in the dress circle for Federici to sit in. There actually was a recent play there that lost a lot of money and ended up being cancelled and some people believe it to be because Federici wasn't seen on the opening night.

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