The War of the Worlds

Dave brought home a DVD of a live performance of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds from the video library and we watched the first act tonight.

It was great to see the way they had put it all together, with the music, graphics and the singers. However, one of the most fascinating things was watching what instruments were used to make all the various music and sound effects that are so familiar. I rather liked seeing how much use was made of a harp - sure it was mostly for the underlying ambience, but it was great to watch.

I was also most impressed by the little electronic music stands all the musicians had. Basically it was a little LCD screen that I assume showed the score and presumably also automatically turned the pages as I never saw anyone rapidly flicking out an arm to adjust the music.

I have always loved this musical/show/score/whatever you call it (it kind of defies description really) and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching this performance. It is being put on here in Auckland later this year and Dave and I toyed with the idea of going, but unfortunately we simply can't justify the cost at this point in time. So getting to watch it on the DVD, while nowhere near beginning to compare with the "real thing", is still a nice consolation prize.

I'm now totally in the mood for the show - except the creepy little epilogue at the end that I can never listen to before going to sleep or I'll have nightmares - so I've loaded both the full version and the highlights onto my mp3 player to listen to as I drift off. I don't know which I'll listen to, but I expect it will be the highlights, just to make sure I miss the aforementioned epilogue.