Star Wars - A Musical Journey
Friday 10th April saw the start of Star Wars - A Musical Journey's premiere at the O2 Arena in London. After the enjoyment Paul and I had attending a similar concert featuring music from a number of Gerry Anderson's works, I happily booked tickets and made the necessary arrangements for a trip to London. The basic premise of the concert was the music composed by John Williams for all six Star Wars films was grouped into themes. Performed live by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a giant video screen played key scenes to match the score behind them.
Experience has taught us that if we want to go to the O2 Arena for a relaxing evening, including time for something to eat, we have to get there very early. So we turned up 4 hours early and went to Goucho's for a good old fashioned meat-fest and cocktails. With food in our bellies and armed with the customary programme, we set off to have a gander at the Star Wars exhibition that accompanied the concert. I have to say I was a little disappointed. To put things in perspective, we had already seen the larger Star Wars exhibition when it was on at County Hall in 2007. The O2 Arena's exhibition paled by comparison, but at least they had the favourites, Darth Vader, C-3PO and Bobba Fett. Also in attendance were a number of Jedi Knight, Storm Troopers (one, a little too short to be a Storm Trooper), some Crimson Guards and a certain Dark Lord of the Sith.
After having a wander around the O2 Arena I took advantage of being an O2 customer and got us it into the O2 Lounge. After a couple of more cocktails and also bumping into a couple of Twitter acquaintances we made our way to our seats for the concert (thank you O2 priority check in).
The venue wasn't nearly as full as I expected it to be and I wonder if this was because of the Easter weekend or due to the current worldwide economic crisis - it also annoyingly explained why they resorted to a 2 for 1 offer on the tickets a few days before the first night.
Unfortunately, as beautiful as the programme is, it neglects to breakdown the running order of the themes in the concert. I'm having to resort checking the the running order of the bonus DVD that was included with the musical score of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. While there are some differences here are for me, the most memorable.
20th Century Fox Fanfare / Star Wars Main Title (from all six films)
Duel of the Fates (The Phantom Menace)
The Imperial March (The Empire Strikes Back)
The Asteroid Field (The Empire Strikes Back)
Luke and Leia (Return of the Jedi)
Throne Room / Finale (A New Hope)
The themes themselves were titled as "A Long Time Ago", "Droids", "Dark Forces Conspire", "An Empire is Forged", "A Narrow Escape" etc. Each section was narrated by the man in that golden suit, Anthony Daniels who did an excellent job and kept us, the audience, entertained. I have to admit that as soon as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra started playing, I sat there with a stupid grin on my face, which grew when the large choir launched into the Duel of the Fates. Once the Imperial March was performed, I wondered how the first half could be topped after the intermission. Well once the orchestra started to perform "The Asteroid Field", I knew they had. With scenes of the Millennium Falcon negotiating the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, my evening was complete.
As I found with the Barry Gray/Gerry Anderson concert, there is something very accessible about going to see live orchestral music being played, especially when based on a movie's musical score. For those not interested in classical music, unwittingly, this will be the closest experience they will come. While this is a great experience I wonder if I miss out because of this preconception that classical music is boring or sombre. Perhaps the visuals taken from all six Star Wars films helped keep an interest in the music? Without a shadow of a doubt, the evening was a success and perhaps classical music concerts could learn a thing or two from Star Wars - A Musical Journey.
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