See the epic romance Twilight on the big screen with a live soundtrack performance.
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Twilight in Concert with the FILMharmonique Orchestra
When: March 14, 8 p.m.
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St., Vancouver
Experience the epic romance between teenager Bella Swan and 104-year-old vampire Edward Cullen like never before at the Twilight in Concert event.
Experience director Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 smash hit film Twilight playing out on the giant screen in all its cinematic grandeur. The light of 1,000 sparkling candles will illuminate the event adding to its dramatic intensity. As the camera rolls, members of the FILMharmonique Orchestra with lead singer Sam Champagne up on the Orpheum Theatre’s stage will perform the film score from start to finish.
Founded by Denis Chabot in Montreal, the FILMharmonique Orchestra regularly performs live scores at screenings. To date the group has presented live concert experiences for films in the Harry Potter, Star Wars, Godfather and Lord of the Rings series declaring “see the movie displayed on a full-sized cinema screen, with a live orchestra performing the soundtrack.”
Q: When recalling the Twilight Saga film series, what comes to mind is more the many different pop group contributions than the orchestral moments by composer Bobby Long. Do you do it all?
A: The show is the whole film as you see it and I have to do all the different voices, register and keys of the singers you hear over the course of the film. It’s a mishmash of genres, running from rock, pop and all that, and I run through the gamut in real time.
Q: That sounds incredibly demanding of a group of performers with backing vocalists, let alone one single singer?
A: It was the first time in my career that I ever was called upon to sing rock and it was a big challenge. I come from a classical background with opera studies, so rock was really different. But pop was what first got me into singing and I entered opera accidentally as my vocal teacher had an opera background and thought I had what it took. Now I’m coming back to my first love of movies and pop again.
Q: Not only was the first film a huge hit, but the soundtrack reached the No. 1 spot carried along on songs such as Paramore’s hit Decode to Muse’s breakout Supermassive Black Hole and Linkin Park’s Leave Out All the Rest. Any favourites in that list?
A: The Paramore and Muse songs are in the end credits and that’s where the show really takes off for me and the musicians who have been holding out for most of the movie. Most people don’t stick around for those closing moments and might wonder when those songs turn up in the film. They should after the screening to hear them.
Q: Star Robert Pattinson actually croons a ballad titled Never Think in the film. How do you judge his performance?
A: I love his voice and I think he was really an inspiration for me learning the music for this project. Not only did I not know he could sing, but that he could do it so well. It definitely takes time to do a project like this because of the added challenge of memorizing all of the lyrics and notes and where you have to come in using a click track. I’m listening to a countdown saying Bar eight, nine, 10 and need to hit it right at Bar 11 to meet what’s happening on screen. It’s cool as you really learn a lot about how the two mediums work together.
Q: Isn’t this a bit like a lost art being revived as movies, even the first talkies, often had live musical accompaniment?
A: That’s a very good point as that was something that was true in the silent era and was very cool then and is certainly coming back now. We are lucky to have an incredibly talented musical director who can guide us through the challenges.
Opening night of this tour in Montreal during the finale, the track de-synced with the live players. That isn’t so much a problem for the musicians as we can all improvise, but the pre-recorded backing tracks came in way off and it was pretty funny. It is a live show and things happen.