The choir department has begun preparations and held auditions for its upcoming production of Phantom of the Opera on October 17-18. According to Jessica Noal, this will be the 1st time the musical will be performed by a school in the district.

Choir students who wanted to participate in the musical were asked to memorize a portion of a Broadway musical and perform it in front of choir director Mark Roberts, vocal coach Grace Chaffey, and director Dave Pinkham.

The panel listened for each student’s skill level in addition to their stage presence. “There are specific qualities in each of the lead characters that you’re assessing when the student’s audition. They either can or can’t exhibit those,” said Roberts.

While several students professed to have anxiety before auditions, many still considered it a great bonding experience. “It was really cool to hear other people sing solos for the first time and everyone was clapping for each other and being supportive,” said junior Sarah Warner.

A lot of factors played into choosing Phantom of the Opera as the spring musical. “We try to have some contrast with the things we’ve done recently, like the Addams Family, which was more of a pop style show,” said Roberts. Budget costs and estimating which students will audition also play a big role, according to Roberts.

The show’s plot follows the 1910 horror novel by Gaston Leroux, in which the facially deformed “Phantom” that lives in the bowels of a Parisian opera house in the late 19th century is the culprit of a string of tragedies. The story is also a twisted love triangle between the Phantom, Christine, a chorus girl from the opera house, as well as her childhood love and opera benefactor Raoul.

The Broadway classic is considered to be especially difficult for high schoolers to pull off because of its complexity. “Money was a big a concern for the show,” said Roberts. There are scenes for which the choir department has to rent or build a full-sized elephant, a boat, and even a chandelier that crashes into the stage.

For many choir participants, the school musical is seen as 1 of the highlights of the year and many take the class just to be able to participate in it. “I was 1st inspired to join choir after seeing the Addams Family and after I heard about Phantom of the Opera, I was even more excited to join a project as spectacular as this,” said junior Mia Travis. 

“It’s very special because it’s very high production quality and all the costumes and sets are going to be very exquisite. It’s going to take a lot of time, but it’s gonna be really cool,” said senior Noal.

Freshman Leyton Allen said, “I’ve talked to people who saw the show in San Francisco and they’re like, ‘How is Campo going to do this?’”

Choir students are confident they will rise to the occasion. “I’ve seen Campo musicals and they are always better than what I imagine them to be, so I’m excited for everyone to be blown away,” said Allen. “The talent here is really over the top.”

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