On Tuesday, December 3, the Trinity Chamber Singers, under the direction of assistant professor of music Gary Seighman, had the opportunity to perform “The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses”“Second Quest,” with the San Antonio Symphony at the Majestic Theater in downtown San Antonio.
“One of the alumni from the Trinity choir is Alex Bretoi, and he works at the Majestic and arranged for us to sing the chorus part for the symphony for that performance,” said sophomore Lydia Benedict. “The conductor was asking around to see what choir should sing for this song, and Alex said, “˜Oh, I think that the chamber singers should sing. They’re really quick learners, and they can sing this really well.’ It was because of Alex that we were given this opportunity.”
The performance was based on the best-selling video game “The Legend of Zelda,” which was first released in 1986 for Nintendo.
“In “˜The Legend of Zelda,’ the main character is Link, and he’s going through the land of Hyrule protecting the Triforce,” said first year Javan Stalls. “Link’s usually fighting Ganondorf, which is the evil force, and he is always trying to save Princess Zelda. That’s pretty much the gist of the majority of the games.”
As the choir and orchestra performed, gaming clips of various versions of “The Legend of Zelda” from over the years played on a full screen hanging down behind the performers.
“The music coincided directly with the action happening on the screen, and there were lots of lighting effects during it as well””it was a very big multimedia event,” Seighman said. “One of the creators of “˜The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess’ tour mentioned that he always envisioned what Zelda would be like if it were a feature film. His idea was to have the music done by a full orchestra, which would give a lot more dramatic intensity to the storyline behind the Zelda franchise.”
The “Legend of Zelda” performance was a prime opportunity for members of the audience to indulge in one of their favorite childhood pastimes, and the members embraced it fully.
“It was a huge audience, and a lot of them were avid “˜Zelda’ fans””I grew up with the game myself, with the very first version ever on Nintendo gaming,” Seighman said. “Lots of people dressed up in costumes, there were sword fights in the aisles during intermission, and people had their Nintendo DSes playing along with the concert.”
The chamber singers only had a little over a month to rehearse for the performance, which coincided with both finals and tonight’s Christmas Concert. However, the singers were able to nail the music after only five classes. On Tuesday, the choir met at 1 p.m. at Trinity to practice and then traveled down to the Majestic Theater to practice with the orchestra from 3 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. prior to the show.
“Performances are always a rush of energy for me, and the larger the concert, the crazier it is,” Stalls said. “It’s a big deal to be able to perform in a venue like the Majestic Theater with an ensemble of that caliber””it’s really exciting.”
