London (AP) – The “ABBA Voyage” is really a journey.
Four decades after the Swedish pop supergroup went live, viewers can still see ABBA’s scene on the pitch at an innovative digital concert where past and future collide.
The show will open to the public in London on Friday, the second day of the red carpet premiere, attended by superstars, celebrities and Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Sylvia. The guests of honor were the pop honorarium, four ABBA members who together appeared in public for the first time in years.
However, they are in the audience. The purpose-built 3,000-seat ABBA Arena near East London Olympic Park contains 10 live auxiliary bands and a digital ABBA, created using motion capture and other technologies by Industrial Light and Magic, a company special effects established by Star. War director George Lucas.
The sounds and movements are true of Agneta Faltskog, Bjorn Ulveus, Benny Anderson and Annie -Fried Lingstad – British choreographer Wayne McGregor – but the performers are digital avatars on stage actually called “ABBA -tars”. In frighteningly realistic details, they showcased the band members in the heyday of the 1970s: beards on men, curls on women, velvet pants around.
The result is both high-tech and high-camp, a brilliant supernova of jaw-dropping technology, 70s nostalgia, and a pop music genius.
For most viewers, watching ABBA classics is like going back in time, including “Mamma Mia”, “Knowing Me, Knowing You”, “SOS” and “Dancing Queen”. The fun 90 -minute set also includes tracks from Voyage, the reunion album the band released last year.
It’s a tribute and a fusion of a 3D concert film beyond description. Sometimes it’s possible to forget that this isn’t a live performance, however when the supporting singers stepped in and released ‘Does Your Mother Know’, the live music enlivened the arena.
Four band members – two couples who were married during the heyday of ABBA, though long separated – were greeted with a standing ovation when they stopped performing live 50 years after ABBA’s founding and 40 years after the show ended. of the band on Thursday.
It felt strange watching the youngsters perform, but the band members, who are now in their seventies, said they enjoyed the show.
“I didn’t know I had incredible steps,” Ulveus said.
Lingstad agreed: “I thought I was good enough, but I’m even better.”
Ulveus said the audience reaction was the funniest part of the experience.
“There’s an emotional connection between the avatars and the audience,” he said. “It’s a good thing.”
The producers call the show “revolutionary”. Time will show us. As the first viewer to watch a film in question a century ago, attendees may wonder if they are watching a trick or the future.
London Times columnist Will Hodgkinson described the show as “essentially a sound and light show added to the ABBA single,” but called the effect “fascinating.” Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis called the concert a “jaw-dropping mass” and said it was “so successful it’s hard to imagine other artists following it.”
Trick or genius, ABBA Voyage is booking London until May 2023, after which a world tour is scheduled.
Fans who attended the show on Thursday were excited about ABBA’s return.
“I’m excited,” said Christina Hagman, a Swede who has been a fan since the 1970s.
“They were angry that you didn’t have the right to approve ABBA at the time because it was so commercial,” he said. “But now we’re getting revenge.”
Source: Huffpost
