The Phantom of the Conservatory

In 2007, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and The Really Useful Group invited 6 schools to participate in a "pilot program" to stage full productions of The Phantom of the Opera. One of these was Baldwin-Wallace College (yes, we were still a College, in hyphenated splendor), my second home. In those days, I oversaw from the piano a yearly variety show, using the talents of mostly BW music theater majors but also other Conservatory students and faculty. I know it’s hard to believe, but MTs had time for such folderol back then. The show was usually in February, and one of our traditions was to lampoon the previous fall’s musical, so in 2008, we presented “The Phantom Of The Conservatory”.

We had a half-masked Phantom who occasionally came out to turn pages, we had a Christine, we had a horse (you had to have seen the BW production to understand), and we had a Madame Giry who would appear at intervals and present “a note” to the MC, who happened to be me, cueing a ghostly voice to fill the auditorium. I asked the 5 scariest faculty members I knew to record the voice of the Phantom. Here they are in all their reverberating glory. See if you can guess who they are.

I suppose there should be a prize. If someone identifies all 5 correctly, we can talk.