Creators of Symphony of the Goddess Developing New Show
Posted on February 07 2014 by Tyler Tag
After the December 14th show in San Jose, news on The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess went cold. No news about new show dates or new projects. This should heat it up a bit. If you are not familiar with the logo to the left, that is the logo for a brand new project by the company that brought us The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess concerts. The creators behind Play! A Video Game Symphony are constructing a new concert that will not only open non-gamers to the world of video game music but also give these types of shows a new twist.
rePLAY, a spiritual successor to Play! is the next big project headed by Jason Michael Productions. This is the same company that is responsible for the concerts like Symphony of the Goddesses and Dear Friends and More Friends: Music from Final Fantasy.
“Let these award-winning symphonic scores take you on a hero’s journey unlike anything you’ve heard or seen before. Music from Portal, Journey, The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls, Halo, and many more is accompanied by amazing visuals, bringing the art of games to life in an unforgettable experience.”
The above quote, posted on rePLAY’s home page, gives a short summary of what to expect from the shows and it’s producer, Jason Michael Paul. Paul wants to change people’s expectations for the new program. He explained that rePLAY is set to incorporate something different from its predecessor: a storyline. He stated that the show’s story will use Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, or the “hero’s journey,” as an underlying theme.
rePLAY will continue Symphony of the Goddesses’ visual style, incorporating synchronized video with picture-in-picture shots from the games being represented, while featuring what Paul describes as a full catalog of music, including arrangements from Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Fable, World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, Metroid and Super Mario Bros. Between the music will be a narration of rePLAY’s story conducted by Nigel Carrington.
“Don’t expect a simple retread of what Play! brought to the table with its straightforward set of live orchestral game music performances. […] The moods [of the story] will be set to the music of these various games. [Like Symphony of the Goddesses] we’re staying true to the format, with the visuals, and of course the orchestra and the choir.”
Paul states that his production company works very closely with a lot of game composers, many of whom are actual friends of various staff. In the past, Play! was known to have featured performances and appearances by game composers themselves.
“A lot of composers are excited with what we’re doing for this show… we love to have guest performances by composers when it’s possible, of course. […] It’s not really a ‘Greatest Hits’ like what I’ve done in the past or what Video Games Live has done, this is more of a story, and how we incorporate it. We’re doing it in modules, so we can change the story and change the music overtime or from show-to-show.”
While it is in the works right now, Paul states that the company decides on which pieces of videogame music to represent is based on procuring the rights.
“We try to incorporate a lot of different things when making decisions on music. A lot of it ultimately falls on the hands of who’s giving us the permission to perform this music, so that’s always the first course and then we take it from there. Most of the publishers are very favorable [of giving permission].”
The rePLAY website only lists four performance dates so far and is set to premiere with the Omaha Symphony this October in Omaha, Nebraska. The Play! conductor, Andy Brick, will be reprising his role. Tickets will be on sale in the near future, so be sure to keep checking the rePLAY website for more details.
