 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Jul 28, 2022 - 1:59 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
RonBurbella
(Member)
|
For those of you who missed the Los Angeles RUDY IN CONCERT event a couple of years ago (like I did) and who might be able to attend one in the mid-West, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will be presenting RUDY IN CONCERT live-to-film:
RUDY IN CONCERT
Friday, SEPT. 16, 2022.
What a pleasure it will be to hear Jerry Goldsmith's moving, terrific score live-to-film!
Here's the link:
https://www.indianapolissymphony.org/event/rudy-in-concert/
I was there in 2018 for JURASSIC PARK live-to-film and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is is absolutely first class orchestra that put in an outstanding performance. I'm currently mulling over whether to attend. Probably will.
I checked out the seats. Tickets just went on sale July 25th (only 3 days ago!) and it's already about one-third sold out. Notre Dame students, athletes, fans, and alumni from the South Bend, Indiana area (150 miles away) will be snapping up tickets, no doubt.
Anyone planning to attend?
Ron Burbella
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyone planning to attend?
Yes! We must finally say hello in person.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This sounds fantastic!
Ironically enough... I work for a theatre company based at Notre Dame at the moment, and I have been trying to get an event like this staged in the ND football stadium along with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, for quite some time.
You definitely hear the "Rudy" score a lot on campus during football season -- especially today, as it's the day before ND's first home game. It's rather delightful to hear "The Final Game" thundering over the speakers in the gym. Preferable, in my mind, to the top-40 wallpaper that normally plays.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 16, 2022 - 11:21 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
RonBurbella
(Member)
|
WARNING! Please excuse my wordiness in advance. I'm just so.....so..... over-the-top at the moment.
I must say how thrilled about it all I am so far. I had to expand my dates and re-book my flight, my car, and my room reservations by adding a day earlier arrival. The Goldsmith Odyssey Gang (Yavar, David, and Jens) had gotten me added to the Thursday afternoon attendance at the orchestra rehearsal. WOW! It was just Jens, David, and myself sitting alone in the front balcony (the BEST seats in the house) in an otherwise empty theater watching and hearing the rehearsal, the audio/balance adjustments by super-talented conductor Justin Freer, and all the combined and complex elements and considerations that were involved in making the final performance into a wonderfully combined visual and audio experience that carefully analyzed and exploited the particular acoustics of this Hilbert Circle Theatre. (Say THAT three times fast!) (Sister Martha would have marked up that sentence with her red pen for being a "run-on sentence")
If that was not enough, I was invited to sit in (like a silent fly-on-the-wall, I had presumed) for the after-rehearsal interview of conductor Justin Freer by David and Jens. The afternoon had set aside a tight 30-minute block for the interview. It started out sort of how I expected. Justin was most cordial and open. With the initial formalities done and past, all four of us ended up celebrating our mutual admiration for Jerry Goldsmith, with lots of personal anecdotes, memories, trivia, favorites, and experiences. What had been planned to be a tight half-hour block of time had easily expanded to two-hours-plus, and probably could have kept going. But Justin had to withdraw to personally bring the score changes, additions, and adjustments that were made during the rehearsal over to the music librarian, so they would be printed and ready for the evening rehearsal with the chorus. With his appreciation or our time together, Justin invited the three of us to also attend that rehearsal! EVENING rehearsal!!! Having come straight from the airport to the theater rehearsal in my rented car, I hadn't even checked in to my room yet! Well, okay, I'm game. After all, it's about Jerry Goldsmith - say no more. We packed up our stuff and walked to a local restaurant for a nice Goldsmith-nerd dinner. Needless to say, there was no lack of topics for discussion over the meal. All too soon, time was up and we had to return to the theater.
Experiencing the orchestra and chorus together, so expertly conducted by Justin Freer, came as closes to (at least for me) attending the original Jerry-Goldsmith-conducted soundtrack sessions as is possible in this life. And seeing the unexpected original video bonus documentary of Jerry Goldsmith accompanied by the full album version of Rudy's theme with full orchestra and chorus at the conclusion was so sentimental and so welcome. We all had the sniffles and were trying to hold back happy tears, just as we had done with the final scene from the film. We then headed downstairs toward the stage. I was so impressed that we didn't have to make notice of our presence. Justin saw us halfway there and quickly waved us onto the stage for a group photo...and even a little more discussion down in the audience section, until additional performance duties needed his presence. But he did invite us backstage after the performance to Meed the real Rudy himself.
Now for the full-capacity audience performance live-to-film Friday night! This all turned out to be SO much better than I had expected! A little bit more to come after the concert.
Ron Burbella
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for that great report, Ron! I'm so sad I wasn't able to make it out there and join you three, but I'm very glad I was able to help you get into the rehearsal(s) from afar! Sounds like a very special, one of a kind experience. Looking forward to hearing how today goes, and I hope anyone in Indiana reading this gets tickets if they haven't yet!
Yavar
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 16, 2022 - 12:17 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
alexp
(Member)
|
Question for Ron:
I must say how thrilled about it all I am so far. I had to expand my dates and re-book my flight, my car, and my room reservations by adding a day earlier arrival. The Goldsmith Odyssey Gang (Yavar, David, and Jens) had gotten me added to the Thursday afternoon attendance at the orchestra rehearsal. WOW! It was just Jens, David, and myself sitting alone in the front balcony (the BEST seats in the house) in an otherwise empty theater watching and hearing the rehearsal, the audio/balance adjustments by super-talented conductor Justin Freer, and all the combined and complex elements and considerations that were involved in making the final performance into a wonderfully combined visual and audio experience that carefully analyzed and exploited the particular acoustics of this Hilbert Circle Theatre.
Ron Burbella
First off: I am happy that you got to attend a rehearsal of a Live-to-Picture concert. Getting into those is very hard, even if one is a donor to the orchestra.
1) You said that this rehearsal that you attended was on Thursday. Was this the first rehearsal?
2) Did that rehearsal have the film's audio track (the dialogue and sound-effects) heard over the orchestra playing or was this a music only rehearsal?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Did the rehearsal that you attended have the film's audio track (the dialogue and sound-effects) heard over the orchestra playing or was this a music only rehearsal?
The afternoon was primarily music only. The evening was primarily with the full mix up, so they could check and calibrate the whole experience.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 18, 2022 - 1:10 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
RonBurbella
(Member)
|
DAY TWO - SEPT. 16TH
THE CONCERT - Plus PreConcert Show and Post-Concert Event
David, Jens, and I met at 4PM as planned for dinner. We had a nice, quiet, cozy booth all to ourselves in the back of PotBelly's. I had brought along my Jerry Goldsmith Scrapbook with photos (signed and unsigned), concert programs, magazine articles, and a slew of various Goldsmith career memorabilia for us to look over. Then, for dessert, we walked to a specialty chocolate shop and then to KOKO TEA - a completely unfamiliar (at least to me) Korean "Bubble Tea" shop. I don't like to experiment too much with new food or drinks, but I did. And what a delicious top-off to a most pleasant meal and dessert it was. One wonders, when making new acquaintances in person, whether you might run out of things to talk about. Completely the opposite! We had to interrupt ourselves to leave for the theater in time to meet conductor Justin Freer as arranged in the so-called "green room" before the concert. It helped that we knew the special entrances to go to, and how to negotiate the winding backstage halls to get to near where we had done the interview the afternoon before.
Justin arrived on time wearing his RUDY IN CONCERT T-shirt with his conductor suit on a hanger, accompanied by several entertainment personalities. We could see that he was in the expected last-minute rush of juggling all of the elements to get things going for the 7:15 PM on-stage interview with Rudy himself and with screenplay writer Angelo Pizzo, whom we had just met backstage. Time was tight for them and we felt it was best to take our seats in the audience.
PRE-SHOW DISCUSSION
The pre-show discussion was entertaining and informative. I learned how the evolution of RUDY from idea to proposal to delays to eventual approval to screenplay to film: how it navigated twists and turns, frustrating disappointments, and heartwarming successes. It was interesting to hear that the screenwriter, Angelo Pizzo, remarked how he had initially turned down the project. No way would there be another sports film for him. But with fate and the persistence of Rudy and a couple of unexpected Hollywood turns-of-events, what seemed doomed came to be, including getting Jerry Goldsmith to score the film. The film had been completed, they were almost out of money. What was left didn't seem to be enough to cover the composer's fee and expenses. But Jerry came to a private screening. As was his usual custom, he sat alone in the front row to screen the film. The film ended. For quite a while, Jerry didn't move. They were worried that he had fallen asleep! Finally, he slowly arose and turned around, with tears in his eyes, and announced "You S.O.B., you KNEW I was going to love this film!" and of course he wrote his amazingly emotional score, which he considered one of his top five favorite scores.
THE CONCERT
Since we had already seen the rehearsal performances of the scenes in the film that had score (and not always in proper film sequence) and how errors and deficiencies were corrected, we looked forward to the actual complete film, not just the pieces of the scored-film puzzle. I was seated near the front of the balcony. The orchestra and chorus performed fantastically. Justin's conducting was a wonder to behold. At the concluding scene of "The Final Game," while Jerry's rousing music was ending the film, I sneaked a peek around at the audience behind me. It was a sea of broadly smiling, tearful faces. Me, too. By the way, the film did have an Intermission. During the Intermission, I was standing alone, just thinking and looking at the various audience members downstairs in the lobby, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Rudy himself! Since we had already met backstage, he felt comfortable enough to start up a brief but good conversation. We ended up taking a nice picture together.
AFTER THE SHOW
There was a huge line for fans to meet Rudy and take a photo with him and get his signature on the program.. And appropriately so. Matthew, the orchestra manager, invited us backstage to the green room area where there was champagne already poured out. I will admit to one or two of those. There was a minor flurry of after-show activity. Justin arrived, still ever-mindful that we were there, most kindly invited us to his hotel for the after-show repast and drinks. I was very impressed with him in his solicitation of our presence. One could imagine that an artist might tolerate pesky fans to a certain degree, while maybe internally "rolling up his eyeballs." But his interest was quite genuine. He enjoyed our conversations, especially about Jerry Goldsmith. Now I had never been to one of these after show cocktail parties before, so I didn't know what to expect. I imagined there would be a mob of adoring fans and orchestra personnel surrounding the celebrated parties, with this senior-citizen nobody zhlub banished to the outer periphery, kind of like the planet Pluto is to the solar system. But to my absolute delight, it was a small, intimate group of eight! And three of us were from The Jerry Goldsmith Odyssey. I spent the whole late evening event sitting right next to Justin, within a hand's reach of Angelo Pizzo, and Rudy. Snacks and drinks were great. Justin appreciated going through my Goldsmith Scrapbook. And we went page-by-page, mind you. He wouldn't let me skip anything. We talked and talked, right up until closing time. And even then, when walking out through the Conrad Hotel lobby, two nice couples saw Justin's RUDY IN CONCERT T-Shirt and were so interested in the event that we started a brisk conversation right there in the hotel lobby. The ladies were so impressed (Justin introduced us as three of the greatest Jerry Goldsmith fans), that they insisted all eight of us for a group photo, which the bellman was glad to take. So I am there on someone's group photo, whose name I didn't get.
EPILOGUE & REFLECTIONS
When you are right in the middle of a two-day event such as this, everything's a blur and you hardly have the time to sit and reflect in detail about it all. Only when you sit and try to write it all down does the significance actually hit you in a most pleasant amalgamation of memories. Thanks to Yavar, Jens and David for getting me involved in this wonderfully grand escapade. Instead of mere internet acquaintances, we are now good friends. Thanks to Justin Freer, for being such a friendly, open, and welcoming host. And I had to leave out all of the juicy Hollywood gossip-type stuff we were told!! Thanks to Matthew and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for allowing us to into their inner sanctum for the interview and champagne.
PROGRAMS
If anyone here from the FSM Message Board is interested, I have a few extra RUDY IN CONCERT programs that I can send you. First-come, first-served. My E-mail is in my profile.
What a nice two days in my life!
Ron Burbella
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A bit of follow-up on Ron's great write-ups: This is really the second time I've met otherwise strangers from this board and this world of ours, the first being at the Goldsmith shows in Detroit in 2000, where I actually didn't meet Ron, even though he was also there. It's the first time I've met anyone in person from The Goldsmith Odyssey, Jens, who, with Clark, started the podcast, who invited me in early as a guest, and who I later replaced as cohost and show editor. I'm basically his sequel, and we had a really nice visit, for my part.
We went to rehearsal one, expecting, according to a very detailed schedule, to be granted 30 minutes with Justin afterwards, and instead he went on and on with us, entering a nice discussion rather than a mere Q&A. By the end, he was asking us stuff, like, "Okay, what's your least favorite Jerry Goldsmith score?" then he asked if we were coming back for the evening rehearsal, personally ensured our ability to do so, and insisted we take a group picture together on stage after. We arrived that evening and were stopped at the elevator, which won't work without special cards. We went back out to ask the security guy what we should do, and there was Justin, so we followed him up.
Largely, rehearsal one was with film sound down, two with film sound up, both fascinating to watch, from a process perspective. For those who haven't been to these, the video generally comes with separated audio tracks, usually dialogue, effects, and possibly some music, such as source, or choral or solo bits that might not be replicated live. The films play with subtitles, so in the case of Harry Potter 1, the dialogue and effects were pretty normally balanced, and the music occasionally overcame both, but with subtitles and the circumstances, this was okay. For The Empire Strikes Back, my venue chose to drop the effects substantially, almost completely, so the music had real prominence. It's up to the team on site.
The conductor then has time-matching video to the big screen, his with "streamers and dots," which you've likely seen in any videos of scoring sessions. On film, they were made by scratching into it, like Tyler Durden's cigarette burns at reel changes. For Rudy, a yellow streamer, which is a slightly angled, vertical line, would flow across the screen, followed immediately by a green one. As soon as the green one was gone, Justin started the cue. Dots seemed to mark certain points to be hit, or tempo in some places, and then at the end a red streamer flowed across the screen, after which Justin silenced the last held note.
We talked a bit about Justin's process in rehearsals in our show, which you'll hear soon, but I don't know if I mentioned noticing that he would often stop a particular piece, talk with the performers about some adjustment, then start back up at, for instance, bar 23. To my surprise, the video would also start back for him at bar 23, with the yellow and green streamers, so the technician clearly has the ability to jump to any particular spot in the film by the bar from the cue, and to give the conductor the visual guides he needs to commence at exactly the right spot.
After staying long for the interview, inviting us back that night for rehearsal #2, talking even more right after the evening rehearsal, and inviting us to meet the stage guests before the Friday night show, we received an invitation through his team to join him after the next night's actual performance for a meal!
Ron described the pre-show talk. David Anspaugh had been scheduled to participate in that, but was not present. Apparently he arrived just as the performance started, then did not stay after. Before the film, Justin saw him in the audience and had him stand; there was due applause. It really was a GREAT show, with good sound balance, a near perfect performance match to Goldsmith's, and a very responsive audience.
Afterwards, we spoke with the show's sound engineer, Dave, for a bit. During the evening rehearsal, I had noticed that for about the first quarter of the picture, there was quite a bit of ambient sound: papers rustling, heavy room tone, etc., and that seemed to go away once Rudy left for college. I asked Dave if he'd made that adjustment himself during rehearsal, or was it sound design, as in, "In his home life, the world is a cluttered, noisy place, but once he's pursuing his dream, the world comes into focus" or something like that, and he said that for Rudy, the dialogue and room sound were baked together. Rudy used the on set sound, not ADR, so in this case, he had little control over that balance (aside from a separate track for specific sound effects).
We found the hotel to which we were directed for late dinner, one with a big lobby and at least two restaurants. We were deciding which to check first, then there was Justin, just arriving himself, so we followed him to the late bar-dinner. Pizzo was there with a couple we didn't really meet, and a couple of others left just after Justin arrived. Rudy was at the venue signing things and taking pictures with at least 75% of the show's attendees, so he arrived much later, and held court a little. Justin and Angelo had a high level, detailed conversation about wine worthy of Sideways, but otherwise we picked up where we'd left off, the four of us discussing soundtracks and music.
So one rehearsal, a quick interview, then a free show turned into two full days of fully unexpected hospitality from Justin, who was just as Ron described, buttoned down and precise when at work, and a real hail fellow well met with us for a good part of a couple of days.
In my own city, he made me feel unusually welcome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Sep 21, 2022 - 4:30 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
alexp
(Member)
|
From:W. David Lichty
Largely, rehearsal one was with film sound down , two with film sound up, both fascinating to watch, from a process perspective. For those who haven't been to these, the video generally comes with separated audio tracks, usually dialogue, effects, and possibly some music, such as source, or choral or solo bits that might not be replicated live. The films play with subtitles, so in the case of Harry Potter 1, the dialogue and effects were pretty normally balanced, and the music occasionally overcame both, but with subtitles and the circumstances, this was okay. For The Empire Strikes Back, my venue chose to drop the effects substantially, almost completely, so the music had real prominence. It's up to the team on site.
Regarding 'Empire Strikes Back': was this a rehearsal or was the concert? And where was this?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is on topic.
https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/11450666-odyssey-field-report-rudy-in-concert-2022
Writes Clark: "Good evening, and welcome to Odyssey World News. Our top story tonight: in September of 2022, Jerry Goldsmith's iconic score for Rudy was performed live-to-picture by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Justin Freer. We sent two of our reporters, Jens Dietrich and W. David Lichty, to produce our very first Field Report. They had the opportunity to talk with Freer, who spoke at length about his love of Goldsmith, the process of preparing for a live-to-picture performance, which Goldsmith scores he'd most like to conduct next, and a host of other topics. The group was joined by noted film music enthusiast Ron Burbella, who had some fun and surprising anecdotes of his own to share. Additionally, David and Jens take a little time to share details of their own wonderful experiences surrounding the Rudy performance. Here's their report."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
