Filling seats with hobbits, orcs and elves
Houston Symphony hopes to score big when it presents music from 'Lord of the Rings'
By CLIFFORD PUGH
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
As a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus, Katia Baizan has sung in Russian, German, English, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, French and Italian.
But she has never sung in Elvish – until now.
Baizan and 150 other chorus members are practicing J.R.R. Tolkien's invented language for The Lord of the Rings Symphony, a unique live event scheduled for Thursday and Friday nights in Jones Hall. “This is one of the simpler ones,” Baizan said of Elvish, which bears traces of Latin and German. “Last season we sang in Russian and this year in Hebrew and Aramaic. Compared to those, this really isn't difficult.”
Sample: Lle quena i'lambe tel' Eldalie? Do you speak Elvish?
When Howard Shore composed the majestic, Oscar-winning score for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he thought it would someday make a perfect orchestra program. After the films' wild success, he whittled the 12 hours of music into a two-hour concert. Original storyboard art from the movies added a visual dimension, and – voil! – another Rings-related hit was born.
The Houston Symphony will present the concert by arrangement with Columbia Artists Management. The New York-based firm provides the concept, the score (including sheet music), four solo vocalists, conductor Alexander Mickelthwate and the artwork. The symphony provides the orchestra, most of the instruments, the chorus and much of the production equipment.
The event premiered in New Zealand in November, coinciding with the release of the trilogy's final installment, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Audiences have flocked to hear it ever since. As a reviewer for the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald remarked, “It's not every concert that features a male choir grunting like orcs.”
Tickets have sold out in Montreal, Phoenix, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio, prompting organizers to add performances in some cities. Sales have been brisk here, but the engagement can't be extended; the orchestra is locked into its annual holiday appearances at The Woodlands and Miller Outdoor Theatre Saturday and July 4.
“It's been incredibly positive everywhere we've gone,” said Jeff Dyksterhouse, general manager of the touring show. “I think it's because of the huge fan base out there that is hungry for anything that is Lord of the Rings.”
Billed as a “two-hour journey to Middle-earth,” the concert will feature an impressive cast: more than 250 performers from the Houston Symphony, the Houston Symphony Chorus and the Houston Children's Chorus, along with Norwegian singer Sissel.She is best-known for her ethereal solos in the Oscar-winning score of Titanic.
In addition to Elvish, the score calls for instruments rarely used in orchestral music, including an Irish whistle, a Hardanger fiddle (the national instrument of Norway) and a cimbalom, a boxy dulcimer that sounds like a cross between a piano and a harp.
The symphony has six movements, two for each film; as the music unfolds, corresponding illustrations by Alan Lee and John Howe are projected onto a big screen above the orchestra, helping tell the story of the Fellowship of the Ring.
The score is more demanding than some classical-music buffs might suspect, said Houston Symphony violinist Alexandra Adkins, who calls composer Shore “a genius.”
“We often find, when we start playing these movie scores, there's a wealth of things in there to mine that you don't notice when you're watching the movie,” she said. “They're often very challenging to do, artistically and technically.”
Called upon to play the theme from a Harry Potter film at a pops concert two years ago, Adkins found it had “incredibly hard” passages for violins. Movie music is rooted in classical ideas, she pointed out, particularly the scores to sweeping summer blockbusters.
“American audiences don't think about what they hear at the movies as classical music, but it is,” Adkins said. “It's been influenced by Brahms and Beethoven and Mozart. We wouldn't have this movie music if it wasn't for them. When it's as well done as this, it's a joy to perform.”
For the audience, the experience will differ greatly from the movies, where images prevail. The big question is: Will the score hold up when it takes center stage? Reviews have been mixed. The Australian, a national daily newspaper based in Sydney, called the music “vibrant and evocative” but said the concert “ended up as a series of musically unrelated episodes tacked together, a sort of musical patchwork quilt.”
The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch said the music “did not break free and go off on a journey of its own, as one might expect in this genre.” Even so, the critic praised its “power and appeal,” adding, “You don't have to know about Hobbits, necessarily, to find joy in the sweeping Celtic melodies associated with the Shire, the very heart of the film and of the score.”
For symphony orchestras – always looking for more income and new audiences – The Lord of the Rings Symphony is a godsend, drawing young, enthusiastic crowds.
As in other cities, a large part of the Houston audience may be attending the symphony for the first time and may not be familiar with concert etiquette. For them, this advice: Etiquette is to applaud at the beginning and the end of the performance and before and after intermission.
But if audiences want to applaud more often, that's fine with Adkins.
“It's nice to be appreciated,” she said.
original link: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/entertainment/2645807
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