Disney in Concert: Tale as Old as Time
What: Concert by Golden State Pops Orchestra, Steven Allen Fox, music director
When: Saturday at 8 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m., stage-side chat at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the door, students and seniors $15 in advance, $20 at the door, VIP tickets $35 in advance, $40 at the door.
Information: (310) 433-8774, www.gspo.com
By John Farrell
Last year the Golden State Pops Orchestra teamed up with the Disney Concert Library to present “Disney in Concert: Tale as Old as Time,” a program of music, songs and video clips from the Disney film library that was nearly sold out the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro for the night, so this season they are repeating the performance, and this time they may actually fill the theater to its capacity.
The concert is tomorrow night at 8 p.m., with the beautiful theater opening its doors an hour beforehand, and with a stage-side chat with Disney composer Charles Rydlund moderated by Daily Breeze Features Editor Leo Smith set for 7:30 p.m.
“Tale as Old as Time” was created by the Disney Concert Library for local orchestras with professional level orchestrations and a theme that is developed by the music itself, with film excerpts and, this year new music, including themes from the film “UP” and a new segment of tunes from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. (It just happens that the latest installment of that Disney franchise will premier this spring.
Chase Masterson will be the narrator in the concert, with four vocalists, Araceli Applegate, Natalie Taylor, Drew Tablak and Stephen Van Dorn, and the GSPO playing the brilliant music, which will tell stories of love and friendship from the Disney catalog, including “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King.”
“A couple of pieces of music have been replaced for this concert” said Fox in a recent phone conversation. “We have included music from 'UP' which won the Academy Award last year and tunes from 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' because the new film will be released a week after our concert, but otherwise the show is exactly the same as the one we did last year.
“The show was the largest with a combined audience that we have ever had, and the response to it was amazing. We got calls, letters, e-mails, all saying that they would come again if we did the show. It wasn't surprising that we got a good response because the show itself was great. The Disney (Concert Library) put together a great show and asked us to premier it on the west coast and they agreed to let us do it again this year.”
One added advantage: Jonathan Heely of DCL has now become a member of the GSPO special advisory committee and will be working with the GSPO in the future.
And though plans for another performance of this concert aren't in place, the GSPO will be performing a Disney-themed concert for their first scheduled concert in the 2011-2012 season, which will begin this September. That concert will be a tribute to the Sherman brothers, the duo of composers who wrote many of Disney's greatest songs in their long career. “Disney has a rule that only 20 minutes of Disney music can be played at any concert,” Fox said, “but they have waived that rule for us and there will some surprises in the concert in September.”
Comments