Two nights ago we went to The World of Hans Zimmer, which was a real treat, and very affordable!
Hans Zimmer is like Michael Schumacher, Tiger Woods, or Pablo Picasso; people so famous within their domain that even if you couldn’t name a single other practitioner, you could name them.
The cool thing about Hans is how prolific he is. He’s not young by any definition, but he’s not ancient either. Even so, he has made so much music for so many movies.
Inception. Gladiator. Skyfall. Driving Ms Daisy. The Lion King.
A few things stuck out for me.
- He works really hard looking for authenticity. While writing the score for Sherlock, he spent months in Slovakia listening to Gypsy music, which he thought would work well with his Victorian England theme. For the Lion King, he spent time in South Africa to immerse himself in African music. He wanted his songs to sound authentic, and they are.
- Throughout the performance, he told little vignettes of his career. My favourite was about the Lion King. Hans was very excited to do this, not knowing that the movie would be one of the greatest ever made. At the time, he had a six year old daughter, who really wanted to go to a premier with him. Movies like Gladiator weren’t going to work, but an animation about a talking lion? Well, she could definitely come to that! But what came next was far more bittersweet. Hans had lost his dad when he was six years old, and in his words, writing the Lion King was “a requiem for my father”. It was beautiful.
- Would I go again? Yes, with a caveat. Ball Arena is a great venue for ice hockey, basketball, and Usher; I know because I have seen all three performed there. But these larger venues aren’t purpose built for orchestral music, and I think if I were to go again, I would to do it in a proper theatre.
Other than that, a wonderful evening!