This May 4, the Eugene Symphony presented “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” in the Hult Center for the performing arts. Magical and immersive, the symphony brought an all time classic to new heights in a wonderful venue.
Combining live music and a cultural phenomena like Star Wars is a recipe for success. On top of the symphony’s performance, the Hult Center itself is a spectacle. The acoustics are top notch, even for a theater, and the design looks like something out of a Star Wars movie.
“A New Hope” is the first released Star Wars movie, and it has one of the most iconic soundtracks in science fiction. The Eugene Symphony measured up to the task quite well, bringing all-time favorites to life. What likely amounted to weeks of hard work paid off with one stellar performance.
“When Luke stood on the sand dune and the music started playing I got goosebumps all over my body. I’m like, oh my God, this is spectacular,” Charlie Kirkendall, a freshman biology student, said. Kirkendall was one of the 150 students who got free tickets to the event from the University of Oregon.
The score, composed by the great John Williams, serves well for live interpretation. Themes like “The Imperial March” or the “Main Title Theme” in the opening credit’s crawl are already symphonic in nature.
Theater experiences like these are unique to all-time classics like Star Wars. With so much fan support and stellar performances, symphonies are able to turn a reshowing into an event and bring out fans from all ages.
Famous lines like Obi Wan’s, “Hello there,” or Luke’s whiny, “But I was going to ToscheStation to pick up some power converters,” received an eruption of laughter because of their status as pop culture inside jokes. Giggles floated around before Princess Leia had the chance to say, “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”
Several moments also achieved the applause of the audience like Han Solo’s first appearance and Darth Vader saying he finds one of his colleagues’ lack of faith disturbing.
The most engaging moment of the performance was during the crew’s great escape, saving princess Leia from the clutches of The Galactic Empire. This section of the movie was most improved by having live instruments. Before this moment, the symphony enhanced the film. After this section, the performers seemed almost necessary.
“I’ve only seen it like 30 times so far,” Aiden Kubitz, a sophomore marine biology student, said. “It’s a different experience seeing the music played live versus recorded throughout the movie. It’s hard to describe, but it makes me feel more in the movie.”
The symphony gave iconic moments — like the sole lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader — the room to breathe. Meanwhile, scenes like the triumphant medal ceremony at the end of the film were bombastic.
This showing of “A New Hope” was unlike most cinematic experiences. In the middle of the movie, when the crew lands on the Imperial Star Destroyer, the movie takes an intermission. Practically the entire audience stuck around until the credits finished rolling to applaud the symphony’s performance.
