Morrigoon
08-31-2003, 11:20 PM
"Survivor for Conductors," or "Getting up close and personal with the legal departments of every major Hollywood Studio," or, "I didn't know John Mauceri conducted the scoring for Evita!"
I was really surprised by tonight's crowds, but apparently this annual concert has gathered itself quite a following. Basically, they show clips from classic films and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (conducted by the inimitable John Mauceri!) plays the soundtrack music. This is extremely challenging for the conductor, as he must keep the orchestra in perfect synch with what's going on on screen (which requires some rather complex visual technical assistance, which he was happy to explain to us).
The first half was dedicated to "classic" Hollywood musical styles, including a Busby Berkeley clip "Young and Healthy," a scene from "Gotta Dance" which involved one young woman spending almost the entire 12 minutes on pointe (ouch!), "Singin' in the Rain," and rather creatively, the opening scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom which shows the heroine singing Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" cabaret-style in Mandarin.
The second half was the "contemporary" Hollywood musical, and included clips from "West Side Story" (the Dance), "Moulin Rouge" (the Love Elephant scene?), "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from Evita, and "Chicago" (the final scene). The real treat here was that they recently discovered the long lost scoring for the movie version of West Side Story, and this was the first time that the actual score for that scene was presented since its recording (the play was scored for far fewer instruments, as required by the economics of Broadway, but when scoring for the film, the arrangers "went to town," as it were. This was the score we got to hear).
One thing about the Bowl, they always have a couple encores ready to go (though they needed more than a couple with tonight's crowd!). They showed Liza Minelli singing "Cabaret" and (you knew there would be a Disney link here somewhere, right?) "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" - which was presented as an audience sing-a-long.
Pity it's so difficult to do all that... the audience was still clapping and hollering after two encores, and despite floating around the stage and teasing the audience (makes more sense if you're familiar with Mauceri) about playing more, they did not.
I'm still impressed about him conducting the music on Evita.... (I guess Don't Cry for Me Argentina only took 3 takes. Cool.)
I was really surprised by tonight's crowds, but apparently this annual concert has gathered itself quite a following. Basically, they show clips from classic films and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (conducted by the inimitable John Mauceri!) plays the soundtrack music. This is extremely challenging for the conductor, as he must keep the orchestra in perfect synch with what's going on on screen (which requires some rather complex visual technical assistance, which he was happy to explain to us).
The first half was dedicated to "classic" Hollywood musical styles, including a Busby Berkeley clip "Young and Healthy," a scene from "Gotta Dance" which involved one young woman spending almost the entire 12 minutes on pointe (ouch!), "Singin' in the Rain," and rather creatively, the opening scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom which shows the heroine singing Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" cabaret-style in Mandarin.
The second half was the "contemporary" Hollywood musical, and included clips from "West Side Story" (the Dance), "Moulin Rouge" (the Love Elephant scene?), "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from Evita, and "Chicago" (the final scene). The real treat here was that they recently discovered the long lost scoring for the movie version of West Side Story, and this was the first time that the actual score for that scene was presented since its recording (the play was scored for far fewer instruments, as required by the economics of Broadway, but when scoring for the film, the arrangers "went to town," as it were. This was the score we got to hear).
One thing about the Bowl, they always have a couple encores ready to go (though they needed more than a couple with tonight's crowd!). They showed Liza Minelli singing "Cabaret" and (you knew there would be a Disney link here somewhere, right?) "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" - which was presented as an audience sing-a-long.
Pity it's so difficult to do all that... the audience was still clapping and hollering after two encores, and despite floating around the stage and teasing the audience (makes more sense if you're familiar with Mauceri) about playing more, they did not.
I'm still impressed about him conducting the music on Evita.... (I guess Don't Cry for Me Argentina only took 3 takes. Cool.)