Abstract
The paper deals with the famous musical The Phantom of the Opera in which some panorama of operatic styles from the 18th to the 20th centuries is represented. The author pays special attention to surname of invented composer Chalumeau who is the fictious creator of grand opéra «Hannibal». Some parallels between Chalumeau’s artistic cast of mind and historical «biography» of his «double» — the woodwind musical instrument of the 17th and 18th centuries — are revealed.