The ghost of Frederick Federici, Princess Theatre, Melbourne

The Princess Theatre stands on Spring Street, Melbourne. It was rebuilt in 1886 to a Second Empire design by William Pitt. Saturday 3 March 1888. Opening night. Williamson, Garner and Musgrove's Opera Company presented what was described as the first performance of Faust in English. Nellie Stewart sang Marguerite. Alfred Cellier conducted. Mephistopheles was the bass-baritone Frederick Federici, born Anatole Frederick Demidoff Baker in Florence. He was 37. The Argus reported "a very large house".

At the climax, Mephistopheles descends to "the infernal regions" on a trap door known as the Corsican trap. The Argus described the moment: "just as their shoulders were on a level with the stage, Mr Federici was seen to put out his hands and clutch the boards". Table Talk said he leaned forward as in a faint and fell on the gasman's shoulders. His colleague Mr. Leumaine fell off the platform too. It was a heart attack. The State Library of Victoria says he died in the green room forty minutes later. Other accounts say within minutes.

Out front, the audience had no idea that anything was amiss. Most of Melbourne learned the news on Monday, from the Argus: "Shocking occurrence at the Princess Theatre. Tragic death of Mr Federici."

The cast were told at the end of the opera. And they reportedly said something no one could explain. He had just been onstage. He had taken the bows with them. "Fellow performers swore afterwards that he was there alongside them for the curtain call," as the Australian Ballet puts it. No performer from that night has ever been named. Federici was buried at Melbourne General Cemetery on Monday 5 March 1888. The officiating clergyman was so overcome that he collapsed.

The best authenticated stories, wrote Keith Dunstan, have always had him in evening dress. George Musgrove, the theatre's original producer, saw him at a late rehearsal. Federici was "sitting in the front row of an otherwise empty dress circle".

Later descriptions agree. "A tall figure of a good-looking man, in full evening dress, hair slightly greying at the temple, and of stylish appearance." He sits in the second or third row of the dress circle. He changes seats to watch the critics. He frowns at weak performances and takes notes. Then he glides off through the boxes behind the Royal Box.

During the second act of Robert and Elizabeth, in a dialogue scene, the soprano June Bronhill looked toward the back of the dress circle. "I saw this very pretty pink light, more a pinpoint than anything. But it wasn't like any other light. I'm sure it was Federici's ghost." Stage director Blair Edgar, interviewed for a 1985 Network Ten special, recalled "a faint, spectral scent of old lavender".

In 2004 the cleaner Trina Dimovska spoke to ABC radio about the empty building. "Only me myself, because the theatre was closed." Others tell of lights flashing on and off unexpectedly, and of being brushed against by an invisible figure in empty corridors. Bert Newton, Marina Prior and Lisa McCune have been listed among the witnesses.

Theatre historian Kurt Gänzl argues that Federici did not die in the trap at all, but collapsed after his final exit. "The theatricality of the Mephisto-dies-as-he-descends-to-Hell episode was obvious meat for the spiritist brigade," he wrote in 2018. The Beside the Yarra blog found "no clear evidence to indicate when the sightings of Federici's ghost began" and called tales of immediate sightings apocryphal. Even the Argus notice said Federici "shared with his fellow artists the applause of the audience", perhaps for bows taken earlier in the evening. No one has ever alleged a deliberate hoax.

On opening nights, a third-row seat in the dress circle is left empty for him. Seeing him is said to be a good omen for a production. The theatre bar bears his name. Jesse Cain, the theatre's business development manager, put it simply: "He had actually suffered a heart attack and died at that exact moment. For an actor, he had a very [good] sense of timing!"