The Fellowship of Radio City Music Hall

Last Friday I did something absolutely special. I went to see Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at Radio City Music Hall.

I love these movies, and have never seen a movie at Radio City which for my money is one of the most beautiful places in New York City.

Seeing the movie would have been cool enough, but what made this even better was the presentation. The theatrical cut of the film was shown with subtitles because there was a full 200 person choir and 64 piece orchestra playing the score live.

The music in this film is great on its own but I have never heard it as clearly as it was played live. Also the mix of the movie is such that you sometimes hear more of the action, battle scenes and acting as opposed to the music, but in this presentation the music was featured.

Putting into words what I saw is difficult, but you can get a piece of how it was presented by clicking here

At times it was a little overwhelming to try and decide where to look. Do I watch the movie, or do I watch the conductor? The violinists or the drummers or conductor? Sometimes I forgot there was an orchestra as I got sucked into a movie I have seen about 30 times.

There were also solo vocalists like an Enya sounding woman to do her songs, and some kids from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir to do those vocals.

One thing that was real cool was how on the Conductor's easel he had a flatscreen showing the movie but there was a white dot that was pulsing helping him keep the beat.

It is really difficult to put an experience like this into words, but it really was a special night and made me love the Lord of the Rings movies even more. I honestly could have gone for watching the entire trilogy even though I left Radio City well past 11:00.