Witches, wizards and muggles were spellbound on Saturday when the Queensland Symphony Orchestra kicked off their 2019 season at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre with two mystical presentations of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is the fourth film of eight in the J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter series, following on from the QSO’s presentation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in May last year.
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s film series productions have been hugely popular with the screening of the Harry Potter and Star Wars films. Now Jurassic Park has been added to the classic family movies productions screening on the 27th April accompanied by the live soundtrack played by the QSO. Incredibly, the iconic composer John Williams created the soundtracks for all of the films screened so far. However, he gracefully turned down the opportunity to pen another soundtrack for the Harry Potter series leaving an opening for Scottish born Patrick Doyle to compose the music for the Goblet of Fire where Harry unwillingly becomes the fourth competitor in the international Tri-Wizard cup.
Composer Patrick Doyle was chosen by Mike Newell, the screenwriter for the Goblet of Fire as he has worked well with Patrick on other films. He is also an award winning composer with two Oscars, two Golden Globes, a BAFTA and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Awards. His usual film genre is romantic and historical films but he truly set the dark mood in the Goblet of Fire with a seamless transition as most audiences did not notice that the soundtrack was not by John Williams. His music features only featured briefly in their film with two short excerpts of the magical Hedwig’s Theme.
Four students from three wizarding schools: Hogwarts, Beauxbaton and Durmstrang are magically chosen from the Goblet of Fire to compete in three tasks to be the esteemed champion of the Tri-Wizard tournament winning the cup. However, it has been magically transformed into a portly which whisks the winner into the hands of Voldemort and mortal danger. Rocker Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead stars Phil Selway and Jonny Greenwood have musical cameos as the Weird Sisters band at the Yule Ball providing a brief, but more spicy musical flavour as the wizards and witches of Hogwarts let their hair down with the Tri-wizard champions.
The full Queensland Symphony Orchestra including a large percussion section and even a harp were on the stage to invigorate the film dialogue with a live orchestral musical accompaniment of the enchanting score. They even played some of the sound effects whilst the film was played above them on a large high-definition 12-metre screen, accompanied by subtitles. Conductor Nicholas Buc was introduced to the excited audience, robed in their house colours as “He who MUST be named” rather than the pseudonym for Voldemort who must NOT be named, lest he may return. Unfortunately for Harry and all wizarding families, Voldemort does return in the Goblet of Fire using the blood of Harry, the hand of a servant and a bone from his dead father to reanimate his terrifying human-like form after 13 years in hiding. The unnerving long musical piece “Voldemort” was performed brilliantly by the QSO and accompanied Voldemort’s haunting revival at the grave of his murdered father and is considered to be one of Doyle’s best pieces from the film evoking terror amongst the younger audience members, in fear that Voldemort could manifest on stage frying random victims in a green flash with the Aveda cadavera killing curse.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is not considered to be one of the most exciting or memorable of the Harry Potter books. The children’s book was a cumbersome 636 pages! Large parts of the plot had to be left out of the film to prevent it being split into two movies as with the final book, The Deathly Hallows. However, with the QSO and Nicholas Buc at the front of the class, it was a bewitching performance with the audience cheering and applauding at the end of every scene. The mystical music of Patrick Doyle resonated around the auditorium creating an otherworldly aura, delighting every witch, wizard and muggle and leaving the audience all hoping that one day they will receive a letter of invitation to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
I recommend you grab the opportunity to see and hear the amazing music of John Williams played live by the incredible Queensland Symphony Orchestra in the screening of the film Jurassic Park, 65 million years in the making on 27th April.
Saturday 9th February 2019, Brisbane Convention Centre
Conducted by Nicholas Buch, Composed by Patrick Doyle
Dr Gemma Regan