Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy - In Seoul!

Some time ago, I subsribed to a mailing list for events happening in Seoul. I get it weekly but seldom read the email as it doesn't have an extensive list of events, just whoever knew enough to upload their event.

3 weeks ago, I thought it was worth checking out what was happening in Seoul and nearly fell off my chair in excitement to see that Arnie Roth was heading to Seoul to play music from Final Fantasy. Now if my readers have read any of my older posts, you will know that I am a fan of Final Fantasy, VII in particular. Even my avatar is of Tifa from FFVII.

2 years ago I flew to Sydney to watch Play! conducted by Arnie Roth who played a selection of game music (eg. Mario Bros theme, Sonic the Hedgehog, FFVII and many many more) at the Sydney Opera House. So if they are in town, you can be SURE I am going to be there!

First of all, I sent an email blast to my fellow fans who don't live in Seoul so they could writhe in envy. ; ) I wasted no time after that and got the tickets. The cheapest tickets weren't available (yes I can be cheap, I am there to listen to the music not watch a play so location isn't as important) so I got the 2nd cheapest which was KRW55,000. I dragged my OH along because this time, I wasn't going to watch it alone. Hey, I have to gush to somebody as they are playing 'To Zanarkand' right?

Concert poster

The Seoul Arts Centre was the host of this momentus event. Upon reflection I will say that the acoustics at their concert hall was not comparable to that of the Sydney Opera House. Still, it did little to dampen my enjoyment.

The orchestra

The bonus was that the MAN himself, Nobuo Uematsu - legendary composer of FF music; was present. Never thought I'd see him in the flesh, this would take a distant second place to meeting Ayrton Senna in the flesh. He was dressed in a black Yukata by the looks of it, white socks, slippers and a red bandana covering his head. These artists types...

Nobuo Uematsu Greeting the crowd

So, the music... excellent of course. They played a good selection in two parts. Some of the songs I am not familiar with and these were mainl from FF XI and FF VIII. They had some guest singers for the Opera 'Maria and Draco' from FF VI and Lisa Young for 'Suteki da ne'. Her voice was very high like the original Japanese singer but it seemed a bit lost on the soft and high notes. It could have been the audio system though.

The Choir

Some of the songs that stood out for me were Liberti Fatali, Victory Theme (all of the 9 notes), To Zanarkand, Swing de Chocobo (loved the drums/timpani's on that one), Eyes on Me, Suteki da ne, Aerith's Theme (it would have been incomplete without this), J-E-N-O-V-A and for the encore One Winged Angel which was even better than the real thing!

The best part was when Arnie Roth invited Nobuo to the stage to accept the applause and he voluntered to join the choir for One Winged Angel. The video they had in the background for this OWA was heaps better than the one they used at Play! as this time they used a lot of footage from FF VII: Advent Children.

If it comes your way, catch it! It's a chance of a lifetime.