In the last days 15 and 16 December, the Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan hosted two of the stops on the world concert tour dedicated to celebrating the splendid soundtrack of FINAL FANTASY VII. To be precise, this is the one created for the remake released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and, just last December 16, on PC. We were invited by SQUARE ENIX And Koch Media to take part in the event on the same day, for this reason – with very few hours of sleep behind us – we flew towards Milan with a great desire to abandon ourselves to the emotions of the symphonies composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki and others. As already happened in the past for concerts such as “Distant Worlds“And those dedicated to The Legend of Zelda And Kingdom Hearts, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Orchestra World Tour sees a symphony orchestra perform live under the careful direction of a Maestro, in this case the noble Arnie Roth, composer, producer and conductor of American origins who in the past played the same role for the aforementioned concert series Distant Worlds: Music from FINAL FANTASY. Accompanying him, the over one hundred musicians and choristers of our local Tuscany Symphony Orchestra, also returning from the exhibition Distant Worlds and from the concert “Symphony of the Goddessess” organized to celebrate the Nintendo saga.
After greeting some friends and taking a seat in the first rows of the central audience, I immediately noticed two empty seats immediately in front of us, thinking that they were intended for some journalist not yet present. A few minutes before the concert started, however, I spotted the figure of a middle-aged man, accompanied by his presumed wife, both Japanese: I thought it might be some of the employees of the Japanese company, but at that moment I didn’t pay much attention to it, excited for the start of the performance, although I was finally able to sit on such a comfortable chair after so many hours of standing walking around Milan (luck would have us catch the public transport strike called just for that day).
The concert dedicated to the remake of the seventh final fantasy was exciting from the very first notes, those of “The Prelude – Reunion” composed of Nobuo Uematsu, the historical main theme of the saga, highlighted even more by the images shown on the gigantic screen behind the orchestra: nostalgic excerpts that bring to mind the FINAL FANTASY VII original first make us relive, one song after another, the recent remake. Maestro Roth conducted the orchestra looking at the same images on a smaller screen placed at the bottom in front of him, punctuated by luminous elements that helped him in the direction, almost like a rhythm game. Do you remember the figures who sat in front of us a few moments before the start? The first pause that followed the opera’s inaugural pieces saw a bull’s-eye illuminate the audience until it reached the row of seats ahead of ours, and Roth announced the presence of a special guest for this second Milanese evening: it was about Masashi Hamauzu, one of the composers of the original title soundtrack. The Maestro attended the whole concert with enthusiasm and sitting immediately behind him was even more exciting for us to leave us incredulous. It was useless to hope to get an autograph, since those who have already tried it before us received a dry no as answer.
“Bombing Mission“,”Let the Battles Begin“,”Mako Reactor 1“,”Shinra’s Theme“And the exciting”Chance Meeting in Sector 8“,”Tifa’s Theme“,”Jessie’s Theme“And the inevitable”Main Theme of FFVII“Are just some of the splendid pieces performed in the two and a half hours of concert, interspersed with a series of pauses in which the Maestro presented the special messages from the aforementioned composers of the soundtrack, a series of thanks addressed to fans and players present at the series of concerts organized all over the world. As we approached the end of the lineup, we witnessed the incredible performance of Hollow, the piece composed by Uematsu (with the lyrics of Kazushige Nojima) specially for the remake and sung live by a special guest: Ricardo Afonso, which replaced the Japanese Yosh, vocalist of the Survive Said The Prophet who recorded the original song used in the game. Finally, after the thunderous applause of the audience, Arnie Roth he returned to the stage to sing the last two songs planned: the moving Aerith theme And One Winged Angel, the most acclaimed song of the entire saga which saw the special guest of the evening perform within the choir, Masashi Hamauzu.
A little reluctantly we left the room, and after a fleeting glance at the amazing cosplayers attending the event, our eyes fell on the stand that put i up for sale original tour gadgets, among vinyls, music boxes, t-shirts and soft toys that portrayed the unmistakable Chocobo And Moogle. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE Orchestra World Tour it was a memorable experience that we will carry forever in our hearts, an event that has warmed us in a not quite peaceful period of our present, with the hope of being able, in the future, to sit down again in the same theater to celebrate this and many other videogame sagas again deserving of such a heartfelt musical homage. If you are a fan of FINAL FANTASY but until now you had doubts about attending one of these concerts or not, our advice is to book as soon as possible as soon as the next stage is announced. Traveling from one end of Italy to the other in the day without even staying overnight was a bit of a madness, but it was really worth it.
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