 "Photo: Ricardo Varela | Valley Star")
Valley College Music Professor Robert Chauls led a noteworthy group of vocalists in his own musical adaptation of "Phantom of the Opera" Wednesday afternoon.
The Music Recital Hall was transformed into the Opera de Paris of the late 1800s as Dr.Chauls performed his melodious score on piano, while a cast of six, including the music department's own Michael Arshagouni and Glenn Carlos, portrayed the famous characters with soaring voices. Condensed to just two short acts comprised of nine songs, the performance was an entertaining synopsis of the classic story.
"What you heard today was maybe one-third of the musical numbers from the whole show," Chauls said. "The end of Act One was only two out of 12 pages [of the sheet music]."
Chauls started writing his adaptation of "Phantom" in the early ‘80s, but the project was aborted after word spread that Andrew Lloyd Webber was working on his now-famous interpretation of the piece which came out in 1986.
"We had just dropped it when we heard Andrew Lloyd Webber was doing the same story." He said Luckily for the diverse crowd in attendance, Chauls' "Phantom of the Opera" was resurrected to initiate Valley's Free Concert Wednesdays sponsored by the music department. With performances worthy of the Metropolitan Opera, the musical took a captivated audience through the story of a masked villain who lurks in the rafters of an old Parisian opera house, extorting money from the management and occasionally killing unsuspecting crew members. The Phantom becomes infatuated with a newly arrived chorus girl and tries to woo her by pretending to be the Angel of Music and offering to teach her "a little bit of heaven's music." The only thing missing from Jay Stephenson's performance (Erik, a.k.a. The Phantom), was a gigantic chandelier on which he could swing into rafters to make a swift escape into darkness.
"The performance was wonderful," said student Ian Krupp. "Dr. Chauls did a great job of interpreting the story for a broader audience."
Free Concert Wednesdays will take place every Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall inside the Music building. All upcoming performances are listed on the music department's calendar and can be viewed at www.lavc.edu/music.
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