The 1988 DCI World Championship Finals at Arrowhead Stadium outside of Kansas City was the first in Drum Corps International history that all finalists were in the top-12 the year before. It also marked the first time in six seasons that there were no first-time finalist corps.
1988 was an extremely competitive season with many tight races across the lineup of performing corps. The spread between the first and 12th place finalists, at 12 points, remains the smallest among all DCI World Class Finals; and until the 2015 World Championships, the spread of two points between the first and fifth place corps was the smallest on record.
Santa Clara Vanguard’s second-place production of “Phantom of the Opera” was based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash hit musical that opened in London in 1986, then opened on Broadway in January of 1988. The musical was inspired by “Le Fantôme de l’Opéra,” a 1909 serialized French novel published over the course of 15 weeks, written by Gaston Leroux, a journalist and author of detective fiction.
Webber’s musical, with lyrics by Charles Hart, is the story of the “Phantom of the Opera,” a shadowy, disfigured character that secretly lives in an opera house. He becomes infatuated with one of the opera house’s singers, the gorgeous Christine. After that, things—as they say—become complicated.
The show won multiple awards on Broadway and in London and is still playing on Broadway today, more than a quarter century after its American premiere. It is not only nearing 12,000 Broadway performances, but has also made more money worldwide than any other musical.
Vanguard’s show started with the horns and drums under a 10-yard wide round black cover, imprinted with the white mask of the Phantom. The females of the color guard were dressed in flowing white formal gowns. They surrounded most of the cover in a partial circle, holding candelabras inspired by the musical’s boat scene. The nostalgic “Music of the Night” was heard as the horns and drums came out from under the cover.
A brief segment of the “Angel of Music” waltz followed, leading into the title selection of the musical, the entire color guard spinning black flags enhanced with white representations of the mask’s side view. The brass players delivered huge doses of volume during this segment.
Still less than three minutes into the show, two soprano bugles introduced “Masquerade,” the lighthearted costumed dance during the musical’s gala ball. The female members of the color guard section danced behind large opera glasses and one male appeared as a costumed harlequin.
Colorful pastel streamers attached to a maypole appeared backfield and the gala was pure fun until the Phantom showed up. He was dressed in a hideous “Red Death” costume, representing the lead character in an Edgar Allen Poe short story from 1842. Screams were heard and the entire mood changed for the worse. Christine was attracted to the Phantom, but was pulled away from him by Raoul, the man to whom she had become engaged.
“Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” ascended out of the terror, with Raoul and Christine dancing together while wispy white silks spun by the guard section’s females dreamily enveloped the field. The closing drill formation loosely resembled an abstracted treble clef.
The sound of a police siren opened the ominous “Track Down This Murderer” as the Phantom and males of the color guard section appeared from behind a backfield set. They spun rifles, the weapons inferring they were hunting the Phantom. Knowing he was being stalked, he soon disappeared from sight.
The ballad of “All I Ask of You” opened with the sound of a music box, played by the mallet percussionists in the front ensemble. Flags were unveiled showing the half moon at night.
The Phantom and Christine approached one another, visibly trying to restrain their affection for one another. Christine was led away by Raoul as the brass players formed a long arc, collapsing into a shallower arc as the music reached high volume. A grand statement of “Music of the Night” pushed forward as the arc further collapsed into a company front on a slight oblique angle.
In one of the most memorable moments of the summer, the Phantom sat on a chair, reached out his arm to the front stands, and sat down to be covered by a black shroud, positioned by Christine and another female from the guard.
As the final mystical chords of the musical died down, some of the horns scattered to be with the drums and were concealed under the large black show-opening cover, while the other horns disappeared up front.
The two females surrounding the chair lifted up the shroud to find the Phantom gone; only his facemask was left behind on the chair. The Phantom appeared from behind the backfield set and ran off the field as Christine lovingly held up the mask, demonstrating her true feelings for the man she really loved, but couldn’t have.
Santa Clara Vanguard’s 1988 production would be reprised during the corps’ DCI title year of 1989, with new visuals, some new music, and a return of the chair and disappearing Phantom effect.
Michael Boo was a member of the Cavaliers from 1975-1977. He wrote about the drum corps activity for more than 35 years while serving as a staff writer for various Drum Corps International projects. During his lifetime Boo wrote for numerous other publications including an honors-winning book on the history of figure skating. He also was an accomplished composer. Boo passed away in 2020 and was inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame posthumously in 2021.
