The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra will take Blue Planet III’s score into three UK arenas next May. Manchester opens the run at the AO Arena on May 21, 2027, followed by Birmingham’s bp pulse LIVE on May 22 and Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on May 23. Underwater footage will accompany the live music on a large Ultra HD screen.
Executive producer Elizabeth White will host the concerts and talk about the filming. The score comes from Hans Zimmer, Thom Lukas and Laurentia Editha for Bleeding Fingers Music. It’s a programme with a foot in two worlds: a documentary production explaining its images, and an orchestra bringing its music into the room.
Will Hans Zimmer be there?
He is credited with writing the score. The announcement names White as host and the City of Prague Philharmonic as the orchestra; it does not promise a stage appearance from Zimmer. If seeing him is the main reason you would buy a ticket, the current billing doesn’t give you that assurance.
What it does offer is a different way to follow a wildlife programme. The footage has been selected for this concert, with music and behind-the-scenes storytelling alongside it. Nobody is promising a screening of the entire series. White’s participation is part of the draw for us: someone involved in making the programme will be there to tell the filming stories.
The orchestra also changes what an audience can look at. On television, the musicians are out of sight while the animals and landscape take up the screen. In a concert arena, the players are present too. Watching them work could give familiar documentary music a fresh point of interest. That’s our reading of the announced format; we haven’t attended a performance.
When do the doors open?
All three concerts have a 7:30 p.m. start. In Manchester and Glasgow, doors are listed for 6 p.m. Birmingham’s doors open at 5 p.m. Do the subtraction and those are ninety-minute and two-and-a-half-hour arrival windows. They aren’t concert lengths. The running time has not been established by these listings, so a later journey home needs another check.
Special concert programmes can make quite different promises. The Wombats’ two-part anniversary show includes their debut album in full. Here, the promise is selected film material with an orchestra and host. That’s the comparison we’d keep in mind when deciding whether the event fits what you want from an evening out.
The city ticket pages currently offer waitlists for early access. A waitlist place is a step towards the sale, not a reserved seat. London is listed as well, though its venue and exact date are still unannounced. There’s enough information to consider the three May stops now; London travel plans can wait.
