I was really excited to go as I'm a real Star Wars junkie. As I walked to the Pavilion, I saw several kids dressed in costumes already for the event. Inside the arena there were booths with props, customes, story boards from the movies. Each one of the booths had a screen showing the design evolution of the prop and another showing a scene from the movie.
Of course what would a Star Wars gathering be without fans in customes. There were many of the Clonetroopers/Stormtroopers from the the 501 Garrison, a volunteer group who makes up their own customes. Jedi Knights, characters from the movie were all representing. One I found interesting was a women with a "Grand Admiral" uniform. This character only appears in the books series so one really has to be a fan to know this.
My favorite exhibit was the display of the music worksheet which John Williams, the composer of all the Star Wars music, used for one of the movies. I was impressed how large a worksheet is used.
After mingling about the crowded display it was time to go inside the arena and take my seat. My tickets got me to a seat on the left side of the stage, in the middle level. A nice place to view the events. A set of large curtains covered up the stage so the audience could not see it. The announcer kept mentioned that the lights will turn off abruptly. At about 10 minutes after the schedule start, the lights turn off and the curtains covering up the stage dropped. The orchestra played the introductory fanfare to each of the movies. Behind the stage a large 3-story hi-def screen spanning the the stage, was showing seen from the movies. On each side of the main screen and above it were what looked like "chain mail" of low resolution screens, giving an extra dimension to the stage.
After the fanfare stop, everyone gave the orchestra a great round of applause. Then out of the side of the arena step forward the narrator, Anthony Daniels, who played the character of C-3p0 in all six movies. The audience also applauded for him. He started to speak in very dramatic tone on the nights presentation. It was really weird but he speaks exactly like C-3PO, very strange to see that voice outside the costume.
Funny thing happen as when he was speaking, his ear-piece microphone stopped transmitting, the audience grown in sadness of this. Mr. Daniels went around the stage and picked up a hand-held microphone. He said to the gestured to the audience that he is using a "Jedi mind trick" and said "that no one saw any mistakes" , then asked the audience "did anyone see any mistakes", to which everyone replied in unison "NO".
The concert went on with Daniels dramatically telling the themes to each set of music. As the music was played by the orchestra, scenes from the movie appeared on the large overhead screen. The scenes were sometimes from one set of movies and sometimes all blend of all the movies. Daniels performance really gave the orchestra performance a feel of an epic event.
The theme and music in order they were performed is below:
Star Wars Main Title
Duel of the Fates
Anakin’s Theme
Moisture Farm
The Flag Parade
Across the Stars
Battle of the Heroes
The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)
Intermission
The Asteroid Field
Princess Leia’s Theme
Tales of a Jedi Knight
Cantina Band
Yoda’s Theme
TIE Fighter Attack
Luke and Leia
The Forest Battle
Light of the Force
Throne Room/End titles
During the performance there was laser light, steam and even flames shooting from the front stage floor. The flames was mostly for the scene on Mustafar when Anakin and Obi-Wan were dueling, when the "Battle of the Heros" was played.
During the performance there was laser light, steam and even flames shooting from the front stage floor. The flames was mostly for the scene on Mustafar when Anakin and Obi-Wan were dueling, when the "Battle of the Heros" was played.
In performing the last theme of the night, "End Titles", scenes of John Williams conducting the actual score for each movie was shown on the screen. I truly wish there was more homage to John Williams as he was the man who compose this epic music and brought it to life.
At the end of the performance, the audience gave the orchestra, the conductor, and Daniels a standing ovation in which they had three curtain calls. No one wanted to leave. The orchestra placated our appetite for more by playing a full version of the "Imperial March". It was awesome! The lights came on, people exited the arena, the orchestra backed their instruments all while David Bowie's "Major Tom" was playing over the loud speaker.
It was great night to experience the magic behind the music.
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