Mr. Sulu with Minnesota Orchestra 2/2/8

My fiancé made mix CD after mix CD for me early in our courtship, and introduced me to some fantastic singers and songs that had never crossed my path before in my classical- and opera-heavy upbringing. He spent months crafting the playlist for each of seven installments of his master mixes, and he took great pains to surprise me and support my musical re-education. For instance, I had an Anne Murray tape when I was little, and until puberty I had great respect for her soulful rendition of "Teddy Bears' Picnic." But Mix Tape #3 featured her crooning "Danny’s Song," and it was a delight for me to discover she is actually a talented and well known singer for the adult crowd. These mixes introduced me to many old-country/folksy singers my fiance grew up with, like Bobbi Gentry, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, as well as some off-beat gems like the Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation” and Sinead O’Connor’s funky version of Abba’s ”Chiquitita.”

Each time I received the latest and greatest mix of love, I would earnestly pledge to make him one in return, intending to introduce him to some of the best heart-pounding classical fare that had shaped my early life, like Ravel’s “Bolero” or Tchaikovsky’s “Capriccio Italian.” For a variety of reasons (a. DVD burners frustrate me; b. general laziness) I never made the promised mix CD and my fiancé has been denied the gentle dip-a-toe approach I so enjoyed. Instead, he has, ahem, been encouraged to dive in head first by attending live high brow musical/cultural events with me including a gawd-awful self-aggrandizing production of "The Little Prince" at Jeune Lune and an equally gawd-awful (for a newbie, at least) 4-hour "Grapes of Wrath" marathon at Minnesota Opera.

Luckily, I finally struck gold – or, perhaps more appropriately, meteorite – with Minnesota Orchestra’s program “To Boldly Go”, a collection of sci-fi flavored orchestral works that was originally supposed to be narrated by Leonard Nimoy /Spock of original Star Trek fame. This was my fiancé's first trip to Orchestra Hall, and not even a late breaking narrator substitution -- George Takei /Mr. Sulu replaced Spock, who was tied up shooting yet another Star Trek movie – dampened his enjoyment. He and the other Trekkies (full house!) gleefully greeted 75+-year-old Sulu with the Vulcan Salute, and applauded him generously every time he made it successfully through his teleprompted lines.

Orchestra Hall’s thematic efforts were impressive; a costume contest was in full swing, cocktails had been renamed things like “Klingon Killer,” the 5 tones from Close Encounters served as the take-your-seats bell, and even the barcode- scanning ushers had their ticket guns set to “stun.” Assistant Conductor Sarah Hatsuko Hicks gamely played along, greeting Takei in Japanese, mugging through a recurring tribbles joke, and even trading in her formal black dress for a bright yellow Enterprise uniform. Movie images and Hubble telescope slides projected behind the orchestra provided more fun visual enhancements.

The classically-trained side of me found the orchestral scores for Close Encounters, Star Trek Through the Ages, Star Wars, and ET a little dull, because let’s face it, movie scores are not that complex since they are at their core meant to be emotive, ambient background sounds. The orchestra also had a few noticeable clinkers and clunks during these easier works, suggesting that the players may have been phoning it in a little more than phoning home. But my fiancé, less jaded and more connected to the root Sci-Fi material, listened with rapt attention to the themes he knew and loved so well. I, in turn, ate up the exuberant rendition of Holst’s The Planets—especially an unfettered, bombastic "Mars." Interesting bit of side trivia here, courtesy of Mr. Sulu’s narration – apparently, George Lucas used Mars as an editing “temp track” to fill in for the Darth Vader theme while John Williams raced to finish the actual score. After hearing Mars played almost back to back with some of the Star Wars score, it was pretty obvious that Williams liberally “borrowed” inspiration from Holst for his Oscar-winning work.

Captain's log: I am excited that MN Orchestra figured out how to make this event truly enjoyable for both a classically-trained, slightly snobby culture junkie and a hockey-loving closet Trekkie. I would definitely recommend trying out some of these hybrid concerts, and it looks like the MN Orchestra is continuing to boldly go with more commercial crossover events that will hopefully improve their long term sustainability in a bleak non-profit landscape. This is one top-quality artistic MN asset that deserves to live long and prosper.