[ATTENDED: September 25, 2016] The Legend of Zelda
Back in the summer we took the kids to the Mann Center to see Symphonic Pokémon. And it was pretty great. Well, the Mann Center closed its season with a symphonic Legend of Zelda performance. C. has been a big Zelda fan for a couple of years (he loves the soundtrack particularly), so it seemed like an obvious show to go to.
Our one regret is that it was on a Sunday night which meant we didn’t get home until 11, which is just too late for a school night (especially since earlier in the week we took the kids to see “Weird Al” and got home even later–terrible parents, yes, but pretty cool parents). But that was the only regret we had.
The show was fantastic. C. even wore his Zelda Halloween costume (and brought his home-made cardboard sword–which passed security thankfully). And he was not the only one in costume–some people were very seriously dressed for this event.
In comparing the two–since they were essentially the same type of show–I found that the Pokémon show was more fun, but that I liked the music a lot better for Zelda. The Pokémon fun came from the audience, I’m sure. The Pokémon crowd was much bigger and they were really into it–Pokémon Go had just come out, which certainly helped,a nd they were pretty rowdy between songs. There were a lot fewer people for Zelda, and the performance felt a bit more “serious” if that’s possible when there are video games being projected above your orchestra (and there’s a $12 Zelda drink special).
The crowd was definitely into it, but they were a bit more reserved.
The show was about 2 and half hours, with the First Act composed of shorter pieces and running about an hour. Interspersed within the songs were little spoken (subtitled) videos from the creators of Zelda–game and music–which was nice to see. The intermission was a good time to walk around and enjoy the skyline of the city.
But it was the second act that was really spectacular. The pieces were long and more dramatic and sounded really amazing.
Actually the whole show sounded amazing. The Mann Center is a great venue for sound and the orchestra was really great.
Some things I really enjoyed about the orchestra. There were two harpists! The piccolo featured prominently. There was a bassoon solo. And there was a vocal choir. There was no choir for Pokémon (as C. pointed out, duh, there are no voices in Pokémon, Dad) and it was great hearing the voices rise and soar dramatically. Especially at one point where they sounded like they were falling (and the video was of Link falling).
The videos were a little less chronological than they were in Pokémon (I think). There didn’t seem to be a narrative exactly, but there were so me cool highlights and it did give some context to those of us who don’t actually know the story. I loved when they interspersed the video game clips with video of the band playing–we got to see the bassoon solo up close! It’s always tough deciding whether to watch the performers or the videos. Overall, this performance was lit less and they were spread wider rather than deep so it wasn’t as easy to see everyone do his or her job (I was saddened to be unable to watch the percussionist play her xylophone (or whatever it was) solo. But the conductor was fun–he even brandished a Zelda wand for one piece and he conducted with it.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell who the orchestra was–it doesn’t appear to be on any of the materials online. So they must go unnamed for now.
But the true arbiter of whether it was any good was C. And he was very very thankful that we took him to it. He really loved it. He sat forward in his seat the whole time (even when I knew he was getting tired). He also tried to take video of the performance, but he’s not stealthy so he only got a few seconds. But I was able to snag a few clips for him.
C. has always said his favorite music is soundtrack music, and after seeing this show I can see why–it tells a story with no words at all.
The performance:
~ACT I~
- Overture
~INTERLUDES~
- Gerudo Valley
- Boss Battle Medley
- Suite from Majora’s Mask
- A Link Between Worlds
~THE SYMPHONY~
- Prelude ~ The Creation of Hyrule
- Movement I ~ Ocarina of Time
- Movement II ~ The Wind Waker
~ACT II~
-
Intermezzo ~ Great Fairy’s Fountain
- Movement III ~ Twilight Princess
- Movement IV ~ Time of the Falling Rain
- Finale
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