Movie theatre now featuring live symphony performances

Previously on this blog I’ve written about the Metropolitan Opera Series that via a satellite feed from New York City, one can attend Saturday matinee live opera broadcasts at the Galaxy Movie Theatre in Nanaimo. This year the movie theatre has been expanding its offerings with plays by the National Theatre of England and ballet productions from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. On Sunday afternoon I attended a live performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by its dynamic music director Gustavo Dudamel from the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Disney Hall in LA is quite different from your normal concert venue. The audience seating in the theatre completely surrounds the performers. 

Like the Metropolitan Opera Series, the in-theater movie audience is able to experience up-close and dramatic camera shots of the event. Coupled with the superb surround sound system at the Galaxy, plus special interviews with the conductor and the Orchestra's musicians, the experience adds a dimension to the concert that those actually on-site in Los Angeles don’t get. The pre-concert interviews gave the movie theatre audience a unique opportunity to learn more about the music and the music-making process, as well as gain exhilarating insights into Dudamel's musical background and his phenomenal relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The program on Sunday was an all Tchaikovsky extravaganza featuring three orchestral fantasies or overtures inspired by Shakespeare plays - Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest. Apparently Tchaikovsky’s regard for Shakespeare was so strong that he tried to learn English so he could read the Bard in the original. On the performance four Hollywood actors were invited to set the Shakespearean scene for each score. One was Orlando Bloom who, as Romeo, wandered through the orchestra and using a stepladder climbed aboard on every elevated surface surrounding the stage. Anika Noni Rose as Juliet used a theatre entranceway tunnel as her balcony. Malcolm McDowell was perched in the organ loft as the ghost of Hamlet’s father. 

However not everyone enjoyed the show. I read online the Los Angeles Times’ music critic’s review of the concert complaining, “the video crew cared little about what the live audience saw. The detritus of ugly cameras disgracefully cluttered the graceful lines of Disney’s stage. A ladder, used as a prop, looked like something left behind by workmen. In physics, you can’t watch an electron without changing it. Similarly, you can't film concerts without changing them. This isn’t a benign business.” Ouch! I got the feeling he doesn’t want to share his city’s marvelous orchestra with the rest of North America. However, in fairness he did state “the next morning I couldn’t get the surging love theme from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet out of my mind. So powerfully convincing was Gustavo Dudamel’s performance that he made it somehow feel Shakespearean, even though it really isn’t.”

PHOTO : Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in an all Tchaikovsky concert broadcast live from the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday afternoon to movie theatres throughout the US and Canada.

The movie-house big screen events continue at the Galaxy in Nanaimo with a classic movie series. On Wed Apr 6 at 7pm and April 17 at 1pm, Jack Nicholson’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) will screen. The Sound of Music (1965) plays May 18 at 6:30pm and Sun May 29 at 12:30pm. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Jun 15 at 7:00 pm and Jun 26 at 1 pm. Spartacus (1960) July 13 at 6:30pm and Sunday July 24 at 12:30, and M*A*S*H (1970) Aug 17 at 7pm and Aug 28 at 1pm.

The Bolshoi Ballet plays live from Moscow on screen at the Galaxy on Sun May 29 at 11am with Coppella. On March 20 the dance/musical Lord of the Dance in 3D opens for a limited run. And if you can believe it, a production called Mulroney: The Opera plays on April 16. I’ve viewed the trailers and it looks to be a real hoot. The synopsis on Cineplex.com reads, “Joyously irreverent, Mulroney: The Opera blends political satire with an original operatic score. It is at once a comedy, a tragedy and always thoroughly epic in its portrayal of contemporary political life in Canada. Within the ‘Holy Grail’ of musical forms – the Opera - these stories, scandals and real-life politicians are finally given the larger-than-life platform they deserve.”

Purchasing my ticket to see the LA orchestra perform on Sunday proved to be entertaining in itself. In the box office lineup was a woman who asked what movie I was attending. I said the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She only caught the words Los Angeles and proceeded to tell me she’d been looking forward to seeing the movie for months. I realized she was there to see Battle: Los Angeles, which had just opened at the Galaxy. Rather than interrupt her I let her prattle on. She was a dead serious science fiction movie freak and outlined the plot premise to me in great detail. It got to the point were I believed she was convinced that aliens were responsible for the earthquake in Japan. Admittedly I enjoy sci-fi flicks myself and did take in the movie the following afternoon. 

If you’re looking for a mindless shoot’em up action thriller this will be your cup-of-tea. The plot – Aliens 

attack Los Angeles in August 2011. Where they come from is not readily explained. Think a mixture of Black Hawk Down, Independence Day, Saving Private Ryan and a host of WWII films - only with physically gooey beings encased in technologically advanced flying machines from outer space. This one has to be seen on the big screen or you will lose half the effect as the sound makes the film virtually land in your face. Not something that would even be considered for an academy award nomination but lots of fun.

To confirm showtimes and purchase tickets for all special events go online to http://www.cineplex.com/Promos/Onlineticketing.aspx

The following link was sent to me recently by a blog reader. It’s a wonderful story about a young English jazz pianist that was featured on the television show 60-minutes. Check it out at:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak2jxmhCH1M&feature=player_embedded