Photo of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra performing the score of Coco by Jen Ruff
The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra is the nation’s second oldest orchestra dating back to 1880, when it was then called the Saint Louis Choral Society. Since then, it has served the arts community in this area, having had a storied movement of locations until settling at the Powell Hall in 1968. Powell Hall is currently undergoing a renovation of the most epic proportions, including a new lobby and visitors center and a new education and learning center.
On the afternoon of Sunday, November 3, I was humbled to see a very unique experience featuring the musicians of the SLSO accompanying the Walt Disney and Pixar creation Coco, the film showing on a massive screen dangling above the symphony as they played composer Michael Giacchino’s film score. The performance took place at the beautiful Stifel Theatre, which is just one of the stunning locations supporting the Symphony’s performances during Powell’s renovation.
For anyone unfamiliar, Coco is a touching tale of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. It follows a young boy, Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), who is trapped somewhere between the living and the afterlife but needs a familial blessing to go back home. That blessing came with a restriction of not being able to play music. For an animated and colorful production, it does deal with a massively adult theme of death but in a way so full of love and life. Día de los Muertos in the Hispanic community is a celebration of life, a sharing of the love and stories of loved ones gone but a refusal to let them be forgotten.
It wasn’t lost on me the ways this combination intertwined. Without the support of Stifel and the public at these live events, the Symphony could just fade into history forgotten and abandoned. To see the venue still at capacity on the weekend following All Saints Day, my heart was more than warmed by the feeling in the theater—the laughs and giggles and the sniffs of bittersweet loss of love, even if just temporary and on the screen.
Music, especially live and orchestral, feels like a dying art, one that could just be tossed aside with the world allowing this elite artistry to fade. However, I was thrilled and fortunate to feel that it just couldn’t. That this innovative idea to combine animation with the accompaniment of live, brilliant music would live beyond our times, so powerfully reminding us that we can’t forget the art that has been around throughout our storied history, the art that paints these moments in our lifetime.
Conductor Caleb Young (in his SLSO debut) led the Symphony throughout the playing of the film so brilliantly, taking us on the journey of the celebration of this cultured pair of masterpieces. I had chills throughout the bulk of the performance and, for a film honoring the passing of life, it really made me feel incredible to be alive and to witness this unique combination. I hope that as the SLSO makes these performances around our city that this community rises to show up and support this lifeline of art we’re so very fortunate to have. We are truly a lucky community to have the ability to see these performances. I’d love to say more but I’m leaving shortly to see conductor (and the SLSO’s 13th music director) Stéphane Denève and the musicians of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra recreate Mozart’s “Requiem” with acclaimed bass-baritone Dashon Burton singing an arrangement of Brahm’s “Four Serious Songs” I hope to see you there or at the number of their performances around the city that we love. Let’s support the SLSO as it fights to keep a place in our city where the music will never die. | Diane Ruff
