It says something about video games as a culture that fans are willing to pack a theatre and patiently listen to a symphony play a soundtrack for two hours. It speaks to the powerful role music has in video games where it not only has to survive endless repetition, but often convey the story and emotions for characters who rarely speak aloud.
The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses The Master Quest is Nintendo’s take on the popular symphonic trend and it has conductor Amy Anderson leading the Windsor Symphony Orchestra through 30 years of Zelda themes while admittedly archaic game footage of older plays across a large screen. The audience can dress up in costume and are encouraged to hoot and holler which they do especially when a recorded message by Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto appears on the screen.
It’s still very much a symphony experience, one some will still find quite dry, so why bother? Because the music is so masterfully written to convey what computer pixels can’t and is utterly transformed by really harps, real strings, and to the big surprise of the evening I attended, a real choir. When you have human voices lifting familiar songs, it makes the games seem real and so the audience feel real as well.
