End date Ongoing (Ongoing) Website zelda-symphony.com | Legs 3 | |
Associated album The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Special Orchestra CD Start date January 10, 2012 (2012-01-10) | ||
The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses is a concert tour featuring music from Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda video game series. The concert series is produced by Jason Michael Paul Productions and Nintendo; its music is arranged by Chad Seiter. The tour is named after the Golden Goddesses in the Zelda series. Amy Andersson is the symphony's music director and conductor for the 2015–2016 season.
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Music
The name "Symphony of the Goddesses" refers not only to the concert program but also to the four-movement symphony recounting the storylines from several games in the The Legend of Zelda series: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and The Wind Waker. The concert also highlighted orchestral renditions of music from other series games, including Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, Skyward Sword, and Tri Force Heroes.
Conductors of the concerts have included Eímear Noone, Susie Seiter, and Amy Andersson.
History
On June 7, 2011, at Nintendo's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 press event, Jason Michael Paul Productions worked with independent producers Chad Seiter and Jeron Moore to create a four-minute overture spanning 25 years of Zelda music accompanied by images from the same period. After this performance, Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo announced that an orchestral CD would accompany the release of Skyward Sword, also produced by Seiter and Moore, and recorded by Hollywood recording engineer Bruce Botnick. A 25th Anniversary concert series would be performed in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London. All of the concerts were produced by Jason Michael Paul Productions, with producers Jeron Moore and Chad Seiter at the helm.
Evolving from the 25th anniversary concert series, "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses" concert series kicked off in January 2012 in Dallas, and toured the U.S. and Canada.
The second season, known as "Second Quest" (after a feature found in many Zelda games) consisted of concerts in spring, summer, and fall of 2013. The show went on hiatus after its final "Second Quest" performance in San Jose, California, at the San Jose Civic, performed by the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by now Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions conductor Susie Benchasil Seiter.
The third season, known as "Master Quest", consists of worldwide concerts in 2015 and 2016, but has received harsh criticisms for Jason Michael Paul's removal of original Producer Jeron Moore and Music Writer Chad Seiter, while continuing to use their work.
Original season
The San Francisco event in March 2012 included over 1000 attendees. The Los Angeles concert in June 2012 featured Zelda Williams (daughter of actor Robin Williams) as the emcee. She was named after Princess Zelda, the video game series' titular character. A concert was held in May 2012 in Atlanta and was conducted by Susie Seiter.
Second Quest
A concert was held in July 2013 in Baltimore. Concerts were held August 2013 in Newark, New Jersey, September 2013 in Seattle, October 2013 in Grand Rapids, and December 2013 in San Jose, California.
Two concerts were held in Canada: one in Montreal in June 2013 and another in Toronto in September 2013. A concert in Mexico City was held in September 2013.
Master Quest
On December 2, 2014, it was announced that Symphony of the Goddesses would get a worldwide 2015 tour of a third season entitled "Master Quest". On October 13, 2015, it was announced that the "Master Quest" season would be extended with performance dates through 2016. The extended concert dates would feature added music and visuals from Tri Force Heroes for the Nintendo 3DS.
† Multiple performances held the same day.
Other performances
On September 4, 2015, the Nintendo World Store in New York City hosted a Zelda Symphony event, which consisted of a live musical performance by a string quartet from The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, an ocarina demo by David Ramos (a.k.a. DocJazz), photo opportunities of cosplaying fans, and Zelda Symphony merchandise. Executive producer Jason Michael Paul and conductor Amy Andersson were also in attendance.
On October 13, 2015, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert hosted, as its musical guest, a performance from The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses (with conductor Amy Andersson) to promote the current and upcoming tour dates as well as the release of Tri Force Heroes.
Reception
The series has been well received by the video game press. Writing for the The Tech, Jessica Pourian said the silent nature of series protagonist Link worked well with the video displayed during the concert, helping to immerse the audience more than with video game concerts where dialogue is included. She noted extraordinary applause for the concert. She said she left the event wanting to go back and play Zelda games.
Tony Ponce of Destructoid found the music "awe-inspiring", "pure magic", and "as rich and as varied as the games themselves", while expressing a desire to hear some of the music cut from the performance.
Wired noted "many truly breathtaking moments" during the concert, saying the concert highlighted key moments in the music of the series. Wired said people need not even know the series well to enjoy the concert. Wired did complain of "dreadful live camerawork" and noted that the crowd was not particularly reserved.
Stephen Totilo of Kotaku was less enthusiastic about the concert, saying he liked it but did not love it, and criticized the triple-encore structure and the emphasis on battle themes, saying he thought the series was more about adventure than combat.