On Oct. 20, the Stockton Symphony hosted the Pops! Heroes and Villains Halloween Spooktacular program at Delta College’s Warren Atherton Auditorium. Stockton Symphony musical director Peter Jaffe conducted the orchestra for his 29th year. The program also featured special guests, including conductor Paul Kimball and vocalist Siry Smith.
Following the 2023 Symphony Spooktacular, the Halloween Spooktacular is the second Halloween production that the Stockton Symphony has performed since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This Spooktacular also marks the second program of the 2024-2025 season lineup. The Stockton Symphony is currently in its 98th year of operation, with its centennial approaching in 2026.
“I think that this is a time when orchestras across the country, are in one way or another, fighting for survival. And so the way to make them relevant is to have, ‘Hey, we can bring our whole family to this. This is a really great place to come. We’re gonna have a great time, we’re gonna listen to fantastic music played at a really great level. But the basic thing is that we’re gonna be really happy and we’re gonna be inspired and moved. It’s gonna affect us as the audience.’ That’s what I think is the most important thing,” said Jaffe.
The Spooktacular received a new theme for the season, celebrating heroes and villains from pop culture. Selections for the orchestra included the themes of characters and brands such as “Batman,” “Spider-Man,” “Harry Potter,” “Indiana Jones” and more.
Of the original program selections, two new performances were added. Smith had an additional feature on the scheduled “James Bond” medley to sing “Goldfinger” at the end of the performance. The orchestra also performed the classic “Superman” theme for an encore.
“It was so much fun, the kids walking around in their costumes. It’s so festive, it’s really very nice,” said Mary Nelson, audience member and long-time fan of the Stockton Symphony’s Halloween productions, “To see all the kids again in their costumes … and the fact that the conductor dresses and it’s just a fun event. It’s not stuffy or anything, it’s just nice and fun. Great family fun.”
The orchestra featured various theatrical elements throughout the performance. Stockton Symphony CEO Scott Watkins opened the program, acting as the Joker from DC Comics while greeting the audience and thanking the company’s sponsors. Jaffe also played as Batman for the beginning performances, acting out a dialogue with Kimball playing Robin that led to Kimball conducting Peer Gynt’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Jaffe went on to get in character with costumes for Darth Vader and Superman. Acting performances throughout the program were not rehearsed and were instead improvised.
“The other thing that might be really interesting to know … this is an all-professional orchestra and when we play one of our classics concerts which are really even more detailed and we’ll get four rehearsals. For this show, we had two rehearsals. Both of our rehearsals were yesterday … each rehearsal is two and quarter hours of work, and so that’s four and a half total hours to put that entire show together. And so that’s what it’s like to play in the professional world, everybody’s responsible for having play at a really high level, and spent their entire careers trying to play at that amazing level of expertise. But it’s not enough for everybody just to practice separately, we have to put it all together,” said Jaffe.
In addition to “Goldfinger,” Smith performed with the Stockton Symphony for the first time during this program to sing “Cruella de Vil” from “101 Dalmatians,” coming on to say the opportunity was “Very exciting. Very wow,” on stage.
The 17-year old Lincoln High School senior amassed a dedicated crowd of not only family members, but also audience members who recognized them for previous high school performances and summer musicals at Delta College. Smith received particularly enthusiastic applause from audiences, as well as gifts like a bouquet and a plushie after the program’s conclusion.
“Cruella … it feels really slow but it goes by relatively fast so it’s really cool hearing all the instruments behind me in that song because it’s a whole orchestra. So it’s just crazy,” Smith said.
The program featured several performances that enabled the audience to directly engage with the orchestra. Patrons were called to do warm-ups and then sing-along to the orchestra’s performance of the theme of the 1960s “Batman” television show, or imitating the “whoosh” sound of Superman’s flight to lead into the “Superman” encore.
The orchestra also featured a costume parade during the performance of a “Ghostbusters” arrangement. While the orchestra played, audience members that were dressed in costumes could get in line behind Stockton Symphony development director Diane Vigil and march across the stage.
“I think that the audience was phenomenal, and it’s always one of our goals to involve the audience … We had to sing-along in ‘Batman,’ we had to move through the sound effects in Superman and we had them do the costume parade,” Jaffe said, “The whole point, is we don’t want the Symphony to seem stuffy. We like the Symphony to be a place where everybody can really have a great time and I think the audience really rose to the occasion. That’s the point, we don’t want people to think that they have to have musical training in order to be a great audience.”
