Star Wars in Concert; A concert in a movie, or a movie in a concert?
On March 30th, I went to "Star Wars in Concert" in Antwerpen, Belgium. An Impressive StarWars event where a great symphonic orchestra plays the well known tunes from the Star Wars saga. All of it accompanied with a lot of scenes from all six of the movies, a great light show and this all narrated by Anthony Daniels (the voice of C-3PO)...
A few months ago I came across an advert of "Star Wars in Concert" on one of the online forums which I regularly visit. As a Star Wars and John Williams fan I was immediately interested in this event.
What is it? A music event? A movie? A musical? A classical recital? It has everything of the above but at the same time you can not say it is all of the above.
Is it a music event?
Yes; because it is clearly an on stage event in which a group of musicians give a music show.
No; because it doesn't give you the feel of a live on-stage music event as you probably have visited in the past
Is it a movie?
Yes; because it tells the "Star Wars" story from start (ep1) to finish (ep6).
No; because it doesn't give you the experience a movie gives. You could say you get the "bullet points" from the movie, but you are not enveloped in the story.
Is it a musical?
Yes; because you get a story told in a musical-ish format.
No; because it is not so in the way you expect a musical to be
Is it a classical recital?
Yes; because a grand orchestra plays the well known StarWars music.
No; because it is all amplified and presented in a grotesque and entertaining way which removes the clarity and fidelity a classical recital can give
So, what the hell is it?! I would say it is a superb experience of the StarWars classical music presented in a way that is entertaining for a broad group of people. It won't go to the extremes in either of the above, but the combination of them all make it an epic event which is, at some times, really breath taking! The interaction of music, video and light is amazing! Yes, it is StarWars and yes you probably have to be a Star Wars fan to really appreciate it all. But; WOW! It was a great experience! And I'm very glad I went too see it!!
So there aren't any downsides to this event?
Well, in my opinion, there is one downside. Because the show is "entertainment-driven" and it is presented to a large audience (aprox. 12.000 people) , the sound is amplified. This amplification has a negative influence on the music. Some parts (mostly trumpet parts) where less amplified and sounded great. But overall it can't be compared with the acoustics and clarity of sound which is produced at a classical recital. My hopes were just a tad higher.
But, to conclude, once I got passed this little downside (which was after about 10 minutes or so) the whole event can be concluded in 2 words: Totally Awesome!
If you're a fan of Star Wars and it's music, this is a Must See!