Home Alone in Concert
It’s a hot early summer Sydney evening and from Circular Quay to Tubowgule – Bennelong Point – everything’s abuzz. Friends are meeting, eating, celebrating. Visitors are taking photos. Excited fans sit outside on the steps the Opera House, the white sails hovering above them as they wait for the Crowded House concert to begin. Devotees make their way to one of the five venues inside. The ballet in the Joan Sutherland Theatre. A play in the Drama Theatre. Magic in the Playhouse.
It seems there is something for everyone – even lovers of movies and music! Because in the Concert Hall there is a screening of the 1999 movie Home Alone, with John Williamson’s brilliant score being played live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by the very vivacious Benjamin Northey. As a special treat the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs will join in after intermission to sing the Christmas songs in the final scenes of the movie.
No wonder the crowd that is filling the Concert Hall is a mixture of generations! These special “In Concert” screening are becoming very popular – and this one is a wonderful lead into the holiday season. Sure, the movie is set in a snowy winter in Chicago, but as Northey points out before he introduces the tinsel be-decked orchestra, we’re used hearing and singing about white Christmases! Then, as the lights dim, he turns and raises his baton. The big screen behind the orchestra lights up and the overture begins!
What a treat for the audience! Over 5000 of them! Families, young couples, older couples. A multicultural, multigenerational audience from all over Sydney coming together to see a movie favourite filmed 25 years ago … but made extra special by the music of the 71 musicians of the SSO and 65 singers of the Philharmonia Choirs. It’s quite an exceptional experience.
The rapt atmosphere leading up to the first few notes of the overture only becomes more electric. Even at “Intermission” the buzz is just as happy as children (and adults!) settle back down with more popcorn for the slap-stick comedy and gentle family re-connections of the second half of the film.
It is wonderful to see their appreciation for the orchestra – and the joy on the faces of the musicians as they respond to the applause. It must be a strange experience for them to sit waiting between scenes for their orchestral or choral cues. As the audiences watches the movie, they sit quietly watching the conductor for the signal to begin the musical interludes that enhance the dramatic and emotional moments – and, in this movie, the comic pace of the action.
“In Concert” screenings require sound re-mixing and special film preparation. Technology like this keeps bringing new ways to bring the arts together – and this particular technology brings a new way to appreciate the music that enriches screen productions, the composers who write it, and musicians who perform it. Bravo Film Concerts Live for making these productions possible - and Sydney Symphony Orchestra for bringing them to us!
Carol Wimmer
Images of SSO by (top) Jay Patel) and (lower) Craig Abercrombie.
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