”There was a queen who resided over the sea, whose like no one knew of anywhere, exceedingly beautiful and great in physical strength.” That’s how Brunhild, a shieldmaiden and a queen, is described in the medieval Germanic epic poem Nibelungenlied which inspired Richard Wagner to the opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen. In Wagner’s operas, Brünnhilde is a Valkyrie, a mighty figure who takes those who die in battle to the domain of the gods.

The famous Ride of the Valkyries from the second part of Wagner’s opera cycle, Die Walküre, opens this concert with music for the heroines of the silver screen. The Ride has both inspired film composers and been used itself in films, perhaps most memorably in Apocalypse Now. Joe Hisaishi imitates Wagner’s heroic music in the film Ponyo, but his soundtrack to Prinsess Mononoke is sombre and melancholic, fitting to the film’s warning message about humanity’s destructive effect on nature.

Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel are both colourful and daring characters with extended life in printed comics before they made it big in cinemas, most recently portrayed by Gal Gadot and Brie Larson, respectively. Rupert Gregson-Williams’ music for Wonder Woman includes the theme written by Hans Zimmer for Gal Gadot’s introduction as Wonder Woman in the film Batman v. Superman. Both films also feature renowned cellist Tina Guo, herself a film music regular.

When Pınar Toprak set out to write a theme for the character Captain Marvel, she wanted it to be recognisable after the first two notes. Heroes are often connected to the perfect fifth, a two-note motif or interval often played by the French Horns. In director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Hans Zimmer tied the minor third to the lead character. Toprak leaps into Captain Marvel’s theme with the more uncommon minor seventh interval.

Even though it has been twenty years since actress Sigourney Weaver last portrayed her on screen, the one role she is most often associated with is Colonel Ellen Ripley. The Alien films have all featured different composers. This concert features music from the first three, composed in order by Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Elliot Goldsmith.

Another iconic heroine of the silver screen is Sarah Connor of the Terminator films. In Terminator 2, she fights alongside her son John and the android T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, to prevent a nuclear disaster. Like the character Sarah Connor, Brad Fiedel’s rhythmically charged main theme is also among the most memorable in recent times.

Characters that haven’t reached the stardom of Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conor – or Buffy Summers and Katniss Everdeen, for that matter – are nonetheless worth mentioning in a concert like this one. Mad Max: Fury Road centres not so much on the titular Max, as on Charlize Theron’s character Imperator Furiosa, who rebels against the sadistic dictator in whose army she used to serve.

Finally, the intergalactic diva Plavalaguna of The Fifth Element secretly guards four magical artefacts, but is probably best remembered for her vocal number in said film: The aria Il dolce suono from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor that crosses into 90’s-flavoured electro pop by the film’s composer Éric Serra. It is performed here in an orchestral version with the concert’s own prima donna: Sabina Zweiacker. She has appeared several times already in Berwaldhallen in acclaimed performances like The Dragonborn Comes from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that have made her a worldwide celebrity.

Text: David Saulesco

Header image used by kind permission of 20th Century Fox.