star wars concert

As soon as I walked into the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall last night for the Star Wars concert, I knew I should have brought my camera. Princess Leia and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (with a working light saber) were walking around in costume, for example...and those were just a couple of the concert attendees! Concert goers were also greeted by Storm Troopers, Darth Vader and a furry Wookie, and we could also gawk at an amazing full-size R2D2 and Darth Vader constructed completely of Lego.

Debuting in this city last night with a repeat performance tonight, the Star Wars concert is being performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and The Mississauga Choral Society, conducted by Erich Kunzel, a long-time friend of Star Wars composer John Williams. Anthony Daniels, the actor behind the android C-3PO in the movie, narrated the concert.

I attended the concert with Luisa, Walter, Hrach, Vartan and Julie. We opted for cheaper seats ($30 incl tax) which overlooked the stage. I've never seen an orchestral concert from this perspective before, and really enjoyed the view of the conductor and performers, especially the percussionists. The only downside was that we couldn't see a few of the brass players, but I found it didn't detract that much from my enjoyment of the experience.



Anthony Daniels was a brilliant narrator, and highly entertaining. Whenever a mention of C3PO came up in the narrative, for example, Daniels would take great pleasure in adding an embellishment. Once he rambled on so long about how important and wonderful the android was in the story that Eric Kunzel, who was waiting to cue the orchestra, turned around and mock-glared at him.

:-D

Hearing the musical highlights from the six movies was a wonderful experience, particularly those from A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Not only did the music remind me of my various favourite scenes from the films, but also evoked a strong sense of nostalgia from my childhood. I remembered Ruth and I going to see Star Wars for the first time at Shopper's World in Brampton. I remembered how my brother had a small figurine of the evil emperor which he used as a Christmas ornament; I have it now. I can still quote part of the final climactic scene between the evil emperor and Luke Skywalker:

EVIL EMPEROR: "Young fool...only now, at the end, do you understand. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side..."

Yes, I'm a Star Wars geek. :-)

One of my favourite musical bits, though, was from the newer movies...the music while Darth Maul and Qui-Gon are duelling. VERY cool to have such a great view of the percussionists, and the excitement generated by the frantic beat of the music and choir singing made me feel as if I was watching that scene for the first time again.

I think the performers were a bit taken aback by the strong positive response of the audience at the end, more like a rock concert than for a symphony orchestra performance. Lots of clapping, screaming, about 4 or 5 standing ovations (I lost count). To the immense delight of the audience, one of the encore pieces was the music from the Cantina scene in A New Hope, where the aliens are performing in that seedy bar. It was the first time I'd ever seen a symphony conductor actively encouraging the audience to clap along with the music.

After tonight's performance, the Star Wars concert is off to Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, Denver and Cincinnati.

Thanks so much to Walter for organizing this outing!

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