The best place to start would seem to be the richest man in town, right? So the party goes to the mansion on the north edge of town. There's a man in a suit inside, running around frantically. He stops when he sees Celes.

He rushes out of the building, dropping an envelope in his haste.

The party picks up the envelope.

A man who... well... is apparently too rich to care about fashion sense... walks up to explain a little.

Loosely. ダンチョー (DANCHOU) appears to be shortened from 劇団長 (gekidanchou, troupe leader). While not quite the same thing as an impresario, which would be more like a producer, it should be close enough. The name's more overtly on-the-nose in Japanese, though. They're basically saying, "he's the troupe leader, and everyone just calls him 'Leader'." Either way, it's clear that they know him by role and not by name.

The party reads the letter, and the music fades out...

2-11 "Setzer" plays as the scene changes to show a man with long silver hair and wearing a black trench coat standing on an airship deck. The variant of airship seen in this game stays aloft with a large balloon (presumably hot air or helium) and uses propellers for movement and steering.

I hadn't noticed, but since Legends of Localization brought it up, this is the only time the game itself mentions the Blackjack's name. Which also means that the English version never mentions it! I think I only remember it from a strategy guide, and just assumed it had to have been in the game all along, but nope.

I managed to dig up the instruction manual, and it's not in there, either—the section explaining the controls just says "airship", and so does Setzer's bio. The Playstation FF Anthology manual does it one worse and uses "Zeppelin" repeatedly, despite this word never appearing in the game. It's also turns out that it's an improper usage of the term, since that's a brand name, though the Blackjack certainly appears to be the same sort of vehicle as a Zeppelin.

On that note, when I looked into it, I was surprised to find that "airship" wasn't just made up for video games, but is a legitimate English word, synonymous with "dirigible", that refers to any powered and steerable lighter-than-air craft. Blimps are airships with no internal structure; they loose their shape if deflated. Rigid airships are those with an internal framework that maintains its shape even without being inflated. Zeppelins, properly speaking, refer only to the ones manufactured by Ferdinand von Zeppelin's Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company, though the term seems to have become genericized in practice.

Come to think of it, I believe this is the first Final Fantasy "airship" that's actually an airship by the standard definition of the term.

I find it a bit odd that, if this is the only airship in the world, everyone knows exactly what the term means right away, with no explanation. It's simple enough to figure out from the kanji ('fly' + 'sky' + 'ship'), but they're supposed to be talking to each other, not writing things down... Maybe airships were once more common, or maybe it's just so famous that everyone knows about it.

And upon hearing from the townsfolk that the Opera Theater is further south, the party continues their journey.

If you like Gau or just want a side trip to learn some magic, this is your last chance for a while to go back to the Beast Plain. Head to the Returner Headquarters, through Bannan's room, and onto the raft to ride down Lethe River again, which will now always drop everyone off on the eastern side, where Mash landed. Retrace his steps, thankfully with fewer events and interruptions, to get to the Beast Plain and back. The best part comes when you take the ship to South Figaro and try to disembark there...

The merchant then pulls out a treasure chest, shoves the party inside, and takes it to the edge of town before opening it up again.

The music during this scene is, of course, "??".

"Spinach Rag" plays in the theater. The Impresario stands just inside.

クビにされる (KUBI ni sareru) literally means "be beheaded", but much like "getting axed" more often just means losing one's job.

Lock continues, possibly making this up as he goes along.

He starts leaving, but Lock cuts him off.

I swear this guy has mood swings.

Celes suddenly starts running around wildly.

And maybe if she'd cut back on the overreaction, we'd believe her. She's positively giddy with excitement.

Celes shoves Lock out of the way and races for the next room so eagerly that she runs into the door. Oops. She gets up and this time opens the door before going through and closing it behind her. Lock gets up and walks over to listen in.

Lock laughs.

A familiar purple octopus (now there's a phrase you don't hear every day) comes out from behind a curtain not far away.

Orthros tosses a letter towards the party. It lands behind them.

Everyone heads into the room with Celes, except Orthros. They still haven't noticed the letter.