Wild Candy has created a world first in live theatre with an electrifying new genre of wildlife entertainment. For the first time on stage, stunning footage of wild animals is brought to life with a live symphony orchestra. The Orchestra Goes Wild! is an imaginative, whimsical and compelling view of wild animals in their natural habitat. Huge whales in their ocean haunt, giant pandas on the prowl, lions hunting with their tiny cubs. We enter their personal world through the music of the symphony orchestra. This highly original eye and ear candy will appeal to all ages, particularly those with a growing concern for the health of the planet.

THE SHOW
The first half of the concert presents spectacular images of wildlife edited to music from the popular classics. It opens with the greatest box office drawcard of the animal world, the clownish giant panda. This is Panda Pizzicato performed to the music of Grieg, Ponchielli, Johann Strauss and showcasing the cute and bumbling pandas as they flaunt their many theatrical talents on a huge screen above the orchestra. Following will be an innovative visual interpretation of the favourite Carnival of the Animals starring some new critters alongside the regulars intended by Saint Saens! Joining forces with the original lions and elephants will be hippos, leopards, tree kangaroos, monkeys and other creatures of the jungle and the savannah. These wild animals will perform against a splendid backdrop of their own habitat, from Africa to the Arctic Circle, Australia to Peru, China and beyond.

The second half of The Orchestra Goes Wild! is a new, specially commissioned work from Australian composer Rob John, Concerto for Whale and Orchestra. No living creature evokes more passion than the mighty whale and this amazing piece of music features whale song as the solo instrument 'playing' with the symphony orchestra. The concerto begins with the awesome and dramatic creation of the world, the Big Bang, then slips below the surface of the water with molten volcanic lava into the mystical world of the whale.

The visual images are grouped around the lines of the music ‘themes’ - mating, motherhood, play, eating, curiosity and song. Whimsical, stirring, all the time graceful and filled with power. Underwater ballets unfold as the Beluga whale twirls in an effortless solo, a humpback and calf glide in a playful pas de deux. We swim with killer whales too as the music moves from lyrical beauty and stilless to menace, dark and angry. At times the cameras are just a metre away from these vast creatures, an eye filling the screen, the flick of a tail bouncing off a lens.

The Concerto is a spectacular display of energy and beauty, a duet performed by the mighty whales and the symphony orchestra. From the Big Bang of the first movememt through to the adagio featuring humpback mothers and calves and the final climax of breaching, blowing and tail slapping, the whales’ performance leaves no doubt as to which is the most powerfull creature on earth!

While the world grapples with the spiralling effects of climate change, The Orchestra Goes Wild! stands out as a positive reminder of the unique natural world we need to protect.