Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy – with VSO
A bit late, but better late than never?
I thought I’d write about the Final Fantasy concert – Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy.
Conducted by Arnie Roth and performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the University of British Columbia Opera Ensemble, the concert took place on October 8 at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.
It’s a bit of a long review, so please click below for the rest of the article.
The concert was a showcase of signature themes and music from the Final Fantasy games through a collaboration of various scenes and movie clips from the games along with live music by an orchestra, and the concerts have taken place in locations such as Stockholm, Detroit, and Seattle.
This Vancouver performance was the first FF Concert to take place in Canada, and gained enormous amounts of attention.
While the concert wasn’t necessarily advertised greatly, many people found out about this concert through online media and word of mouth. Given that there was only one performance, the tickets completely sold out. On the first day the tickets were available for sale, the order page on the VSO website went down temporarily, and the phone line was quite busy as well. (Yes, this is based on personal experience – I’m sure that call did drain quite a bit of my minutes that month, though I have no regrets; it was definitely worth it.)
Here’s a shot of the Orpheum Theatre from the outside and the inside.
Before the concert and during the intermission, goods such as T-shirts, pamphlet/artbook, and CDs were sold at the booths located around the theatre (as seen in the picture on the right on both
Given the nature of the concert, there weren’t many people in “actual” cosplay, but there were numerous people in black or white suits, likely inspired by characters in FF7.
The following is the setlist along with a quick description of the accompanying movie. Please do feel free to let me know if I left anything out, or made any mistakes:
FF8 – Liberi Fatali (FF8 opening sequence)
< Introduction by Arnie Roth, followed by the victory fanfare >
(Arnie Roth then commented after about every 2 pieces)
FF10 – To Zanarkand (Yuna’s spirit-sending scene)
FF8 – Don’t be Afraid (battles scenes and sequence from a SeeD mission)
FF8 – Fisherman’s Horizon (images of the Gardens, Seifer’s fishing scene)
FF series – Swing de Chocobo (Swing-arrangement of the Chocobo theme; featured images of Chocobo from earlier series, along with sequences from FF7, 8, and 10 where the main characters are riding a Chocobo)
FF5 – Dear Friends (slideshow of still images)
FF9 – Vamo’ alla Flamenco
FF8 – Love Grows (I… think it featured Squall and Rinoa’s love scenes)
FF8 – Man With The Machine Gun (battle scenes featuring Ragna & Co.)
< intermission >
FF7 – Opening~Bombing Mission (FF7 opening sequence)
< message from Nobuo Uematsu >
FF7 – FF7 Main Theme (North American premiere; featuring memorable scenes from FF7)
FF7 – Aerith’s Theme (featuring scenes with Aerith)
FF11 – Memoro de la Stono – Distant Worlds (title music – featuring the UBC Opera Ensemble and a female soloist)
FF11 – Ronfaure (featuring various scenes from the game)
FF4 – Theme of Love (mostly from the remake version of FF4)
FF6 – Opera “Maria and Draco” (opera arrangement of Aria di Mezzo Carattere)
Encore – FF6 – Terra’s Theme (slideshow of still images)
Double-Encore – FF7 – One-Winged Angel (scenes with Sephiroth from the game, as well as battle scenes of Cloud vs. Kadaj/Sephiroth from FF7AC)
As seen from the setlist, there seemed to be a great emphasis on the newer series – FF7 and FF8. Perhaps this may be due to how the expected audience was more of the younger generation, though I personally would have liked to see a bit more of a variety.
According to Arnie Roth, Nobuo Uematsu was working on all the music for FF14, of which he had to finish by end of October. Due to the workload, Mr. Uematsu was unable to come to this Vancouver performance. In his video message, we first saw a statue and simply heard his voice coming from elsewhere, though he appeared briefly towards the end of the clip.
Most of the audience were doing a standing ovation at the end of the double-encore. Mr. Roth then disappeared for a bit, and then reappeared on stage, as if there was going to be a triple-encore, but instead he chose to end the concert with one last “victory fanfare” – I quite liked this one last bit of the concert.
As far as the goods are concerned, I ended up purchasing the pamphlet/artbook and the CD. The CD’s sound quality is quite remarkable, and I certainly would recommend it to anyone who’s interested – it appears it’s available on amazon and the official website.
Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy – with VSO