ESO mesmerizes audience with Potter-themed performance
“Extendas instrumenta!” mouths the rather diminutive wizard at the podium, his wand raised. The assembled wizards and witches, all members of the Edmonton Special Obliviators (better known as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra), watch him keenly. There is a moment of hushed silence, and then the wand comes down.
Robert Bernhardt, the Master Wizard of this ceremony, is not as tiny as Professor Filius Flitwick, the celebrated half-goblin Chorus Master of Hogwarts, but neither is he as huge as the ESO’s premier Wizard, Alexander Prior, who, with his unruly hair and mighty stature, is rumoured to have Giant blood in his ancestry.
Why, you might wonder, were the Obliviators here in the Winspear Centre on Sunday afternoon? They were putting into practice a method invented in America by the Wizard John Williams, Music Dream-Maker, 1st Order, and taken up by his followers, Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat.
Williams recognized that there were many Muggles who had unfortunately seen too much of the recent events surrounding the conflict between Harry Potter and He-who-must-not-benamed, and the death of Albus Dumbledore.
Recalling the effect that music had on the three-headed dog named Fluffy, he therefore invented a system of playing charm-laden music to massed Muggles. This makes them believe that all the things they
had witnessed were not, in fact, real, but had been seen by them in what Muggles call ‘movies.’ They also think that the music they hear is what they call a ‘soundtrack’ to these crude moving pictures.
This system the ESO repeats every year, in a number of what Muggles call ‘concerts.’ I was there for the Daily Prophet, disguising myself as a critic for the Muggles’ Edmonton Journal, to see how effectively it works.
Among the Muggle audience were a few of the Wizarding World, easily identifiable by their hats and cloaks — I saw one accompanied by his snowy owl. Of course, the Muggles knew none of this, as the ticket scanners at the entrance had cast a temporary Non-Recognition spell.
The Ministry of Magic were particularly pleased at the large numbers of Muggle children in the audience, as Ministry research suggests that obliviating young leads to better longterm outcomes.
So Bernhardt’s wand came down, and the tinkling of the celesta (alas, on an electronic keyboard) announced the most recognizable and popular of Williams’ musical spells, Hedwig’s Theme. The Muggles seemed delighted — certainly the strings of the ESO then played suitably mysteriously.
Various Obliviators recreated various incidents from that unfortunate recent history. The horns celebrated Hogwarts For Ever, the woodwind the darting flight of the Nimbus 2000. Notable was the boom of the double bassoon in music to obliviate the events known as The Prisoner of Azkaban. Buckbeak’s famous flight opened with the thunder of a percussion fanfare — there were a large number of percussion Obliviators, kept constantly busy, hastily changing between instruments for the different nuances of the spells. In particular, Percussion Master Brian Jones clearly revelled in his drum introduction to Mischief Managed.
That dreadful 2000 Quidditch World Cup was recalled in the Irish music Music Dream-Maker Patrick Doyle had conjured up. The Knight’s Bus, so seminal in saving Potter in the events surrounding the Prisoner of Azkaban, was represented by Williams’ crazy Broadway jazz (recalling that of another great Wizard, Leonard Bernstein), played with great aplomb by the ESO. All the Wizarding folk were clearly deeply affected when the ESO were joined for one of the most enchanting of all the numbers by a group of young wizards and witches from the Children Charms Collaborators (known to Muggles as the Cantilon Chamber Choir); for they sang Double Trouble, inevitably recalling fond times spent at Hogwarts. Even the Muggles seemed to enjoy this, even though they couldn’t possibly understand its nostalgic significance.
Master Wizard Bernhardt, who belongs to the Tennessee Lodge of Musical Obliviators is, of course, celebrated for his prowess at this kind of musical activity.
He has a special affinity for the energy and vivid colours demanded by spells of this kind, and the ESO responded accordingly.
Certainly the effect on the Muggles was, as far as could be determined, exactly what the Ministry of Magic would want. They left dreamy-eyed and smiling, talking to each other about the various ‘movies’ they thought they had seen, and the ‘soundtracks’ they thought they had heard.
The spells should be perfectly effective over the summer. For this was the last ‘concert’ in the ESO’s season. They will be returning to open the new season at an event the Muggles call Symphony Under the Sky, which runs from August 29 through September 1.
On Saturday, August 31, they will be performing music from other movies (or what Muggles think are movies), originating in a place Muggles call Hollywood. Of course, there will be the usual spells and charms there, too — for this outdoor event the ESO are famously joined by some of the metamorphmagus obliviators in the shape of flying geese, to keep an eye on the proceedings. Not to be missed by any Wizarding folk in the area.
And, of course, Master Wizard Bernhardt will be with them, to give us all his particular and special magic.