MEDIA RELEASE MEDIA: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information or to schedule an interview, please WSO presents 's this contact: Sarah Panas, weekend Marketing & Communications Co-ordinator, Winnipeg Winnipeg, MB - April Symphony Orchestra, at 9, 2014 - The 204.949.3970 or Winnipeg Symphony [email protected]. Orchestra will close the SoundBytes series this Saturday, April 12 Download the 2014/2015 season guide here. at the Centennial

Concert with a The WSO is integral to film-with-orchestra Winnipeg's rich cultural life, presentation of Fritz delighting more than 100,000 Lang's silent science audience members each year fiction classic - with innovative programming Metropolis. and musical excellence. The WSO presents educational The music in programs for more than 25,000 Metropolis plays a students annually and tours crucial role in the film, outside the city reaching out to and the WSO is proud to present the original score communities across Manitoba. by performed live to the film. The WSO will recreate the sound of the original premiere with the same number of musicians in the orchestra.

Metropolis was a ground-breaking film for its time, not only in the genre of science fiction but also in the overall scope of the project. Through the year and half it took to shoot, over 37,000 extras were involved in the making of the film. It nearly sent Universum Film into bankruptcy, even with the 5m Reichsmarks budget, which would cost about $300 million by today's standards.

The story is set in the future in the city of Metropolis. The city is separated by two parts, the Upper Town, the beautiful above ground paradise where the wealthy and powerful reside, and the Lower Town, the depths of the city where the working class runs the machinery for the Upper Town. The wealthy live a carefree and indulgent lifestyle while the working class are treated like robots.

Joh Fredersen is the ruler of Metropolis and perceives himself as the 'brain,' while the workers are merely the 'hands' of the machinery. Everything in Metropolis runs smoothly until one day Joh's son Freder sees the beautiful Maria from the Lower Town giving children a tour of the Upper Town. Freder follows Maria back to her world and he is appalled by what he sees. He appeals to his father, but Joh does not agree with his son.

Joh fears an uprising from the Lower Town, so he visits his onetime rival the inventor . The two plot to create a machine woman that resembles Maria to manipulate the workers, but Rotwang has a different plan in mind to betray Joh and have the false Maria destroy the city.

Metropolis propelled a whole new genre of film making into popularity and inspired the likes of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and the character C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

The WSO will show the full version of Metropolis which includes scenes that were previously thought to be lost in the earlier 1988 and 2001 versions.

Watch: Metropolis Trailer

Click here to read more about Metropolis in Overture Issue 6.

SoundBytes Fritz Lang's Metropolis Saturday, April 12 - 7:30 pm Centennial Concert Hall Julian Pellicano, conductor

Pre-concert panel on the Piano Nobile begins 45 minutes prior to the concert. Panelists include James Manishen, WSO Artistic Operations Associate; Tina Chen, Faculty of Arts, History, University of Manitoba; Oliver Botar, School of Art, University of Manitoba; and Serenity Joo, Faculty of Arts, English, Film, and Theatre, University of Manitoba.

Producer: Director: Fritz Lang Script: ; Fritz Lang Cinematography: ; Günther Rittau Editing: Fritz Lang Set design: Otto Hunte, Erich Ketelhut, Karl Vollbrecht

Original film score by Gottfried Huppertz Film score reconstructed and adapted for performance use by in 2010 Instrumentation of missing parts by Marco Jovic

The Cast: Maria / : Joh Fredersen: Alfred Abel Freder: Gustav Fröhlich Rotwang: Rudolf Klein-Rogge Der Schmale: Fritz Rasp Josaphat: Theodor Loos Nr. 11811: Erwin Biswanger Grot, Wächter der Herzmaschine: Heinrich George

Filmed May 22, 1925 through October 30, 1926 Released January 10, 1927, , Ufa-Palast am Zoo Running time (2010 restoration) 148-minutes

Film by courtesy of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau- Stiftung, Music by courtesy of European Filmphilharmonic Institute

Produced by ZDF/

Film Restoration: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung Edition: Anke Wilkening, Martin Koerber, Frank Strobel Digital Restoration: Arri, München (Scan), Alpha-Omega digital, München (digitale Retusche) Premiere of the restored version: February 12, 2010, Friedrichstadtpalast: Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester conducted by Frank Strobel /Alte Oper , Staatsorchester Braunschweig, conducted by Helmut Imig.

Individual Concert Tickets start at $27.00 and are available through Ticketmaster: 1.855.985.ARTS or Ticketmaster.ca; or at the WSO Box Office: 204.949.3999 or wso.ca.

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