Yesterday, the students in Clare College made the trip to the metropolis, exchanging the quiet of cloistered quads for the mighty tones of some of London’s most sonorous singers.

When it comes to the musical as culture, there are few whose impact has been more prevalent than Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. By the most basic metrics, the musical has been a phenomenal success across the globe: it has been seen by over 140 million people, and has been performed over 3,500 more times than the next most-performed musical. Some of the bars to its tunes –‘The Phaaantoom of the Opera is heeere’— are known across the world, and became especially known in the bus on the way back from London!

Students were wholly engrossed in the story of stage-bound obsession and dodgy doings in the cellars of a great theatre, leaning forwards in their seats in order to catch every moment and every strain. The performance was wonderful, as everybody agreed: the power of the music, and the pathos of the story, were deeply moving and often thrilling. Students returned to Clare College wholly satisfied, and with many wondering whether their vocal chords could handle the songs in ORA’s Got Talent tomorrow evening!