Disney Fantasia Live in Concert
The stunning Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence stages ‘Disney Fantasia Live in Concert’, featuring some of the best-known classical and twentieth-century music to have ever been curated together in one show. This live music event includes the pieces that many Disney fans will know and love from Fantasia, the spectacular animated movie that was first released in 1940. In addition to musical works drawn from the original movie, this staging of ‘Disney Fantasia Live in Concert’ also includes selected pieces from Fantasia 2000, the updated version of the film that was released to critical acclaim at the turn of the century.
Conducted by Timothy Brock, this concert series features the well-regarded Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra playing some very famous pieces of music. Among them are Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Lovers of the great composer's orchestral works will also want to know that his Pastoral Symphony, No. 6 in F major Op. 68, constitutes part of the programme. The much-loved Clair de Lune, a composition by the French maestro Claude Debussy, is also among the works.
Perhaps the most famous of the music in Fantasia, certainly that which is most associated with both movie releases, is The Sorcerer's Apprentice written by Paul Dukas. This symphonic poem was originally scored by the French scholar and composer in 1897 with its premiere taking place in Paris on 18 May that year. Few could have imagined at its debut that this musical interpretation of a Goethe poem would go on to be so well-known around the world and especially that its fame would be indelibly associated with a cartoon mouse.
Several pieces by Pytor Ilych Tchaikovsky also feature in the musical extravaganza. Various musical interludes are provided by Tchaikovsky's ballet music drawn from The Nutcracker. Audience-goers will enjoy renditions of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Dance of the Reed Pipes, the Russian Dance and the Waltz of the Flowers, among others. Several other composers are included in ‘Disney Fantasia Live in Concert’, namely Ottorino Respighi, Edward Elgar, Amilcare Ponchielli and Igor Stravinsky. Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches are a feature of the concerts, for example, as is Stravinsky’s The Firebird, glorious ballet music that was first performed in Paris on 25 June 1910.
With some truly remarkable scores that have stood the test of time and a superb venue to appreciate them in, this concert series will delight fans of both classically derived orchestrations and film music alike.