The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a rock orchestra from New York, New York, USA conceived by Paul O'Neill in 1996. Their style mixes rock, metal and classical music into a famous sound almost anyone should recognize. All of their albums are
Rock Operas and three of these (five albums in total) are Christmas
Rock Operas.
They have a lot of members. In total, there are four composers, 20 vocalists, five guitarists, three bassists, two drummers, four keyboardists and three violinists currently playing with them, studio, live (in two touring groups, an East and a West) or otherwise. They have a legendary stage show because of their spectacular light shows, performing abilities and
kick ass music. Despite being together for approximately 15 years, they've only released five albums as their composers are known perfectionists, having delayed their newest release,
Night Castle, for three years before it was finally released in October of 2009. They also delayed their second stage show, based on their
Beethoven's Last Night album, for almost
ten years before finally putting it on tour in spring of 2010. The stage show for
The Lost Christmas Eve will premiere in 2012, eight years after the release of the album.
They are also popular suppliers of music for overly ambitious homemade light shows, especially their song
"Wizards in Winter" from their 2004 album,
The Lost Christmas Eve, as
these
videos show.
Studio Discography:
- Christmas Eve and Other Stories (1996)
- The Christmas Attic (1998)
- Beethovens Last Night (2000, their first non-seasonal album)
- The Lost Christmas Eve (2004)
- Night Castle (2009, their second non-seasonal album)
- Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night) (2012, EP)
This orchestra may exhibit the following tropes:- All There in the Manual: The albums all have a complex story tying all the songs together, but you might be surprised to discover this until your first time at the seasonal stage show. These stories can be found in their entirety in the CD Cover or on the web page.
- Concept Album: All five of their albums are of the Rock Opera variety.
- Darker and Edgier: One would imagine a Christmas album to be full of cheer and feel-good sentiment, but TSO's albums have just the slightest bite to them. For example, "Christmas Eve And Other Stories" deals with the conflict in Bosnia (then a household name on CNN); in "The Lost Christmas Eve," the Businessman's mute son works with crack babies.
- Epic Rocking
- Fanservice: All the female members are very attractive.
- Instrumentals: Much of their material.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: 41 current members with 20 musicians as former members, arguably the largest band to hold major popularity.
- Marty Stu: Invoked. In "The Lost Christmas Eve," the older man was the most perfect guy to ever walk the face of the earth. Tropes Are Not Bad, in this case: he had it all for so long that his wife's Death by Childbirth and his son's mutism (from prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain) utterly destroyed his world. I Have No Son ensues.
- Non-Indicative Name
- Public Domain Song: Two very popular remixes of Canon in D Major, though damn if Trans-Siberian doesn't try to take down any DMCA violation (read: uploading Christmas Canon to YouTube for the enjoyment of others).
- Rock Opera: Again, all five albums.
- Saving Christmas: Though not as overt as most examples. The common thread of TSO's first three albums is an angel being sent from Heaven and tasked with finding one example of genuine goodness on Christmas Eve. Given that he comes to modern-day Earth (usually America), it takes him a long time to find something.
- Serial Escalation: How much more extreme can the light shows get?
- Take That: Many TSO/Savatage members note with bemusement and/or disgust that the only difference between Christmas Eve in Sarajevo on Dead Winter Dead and Christmas Eve from Christmas Eve and Other Stories is that one was released by a metal band called Savatage and the other by Trans-Siberian, but only one got extensive radio play. Guess which one.
- The Movie: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, which boasted performances by Michael Crawford and Jewel and starred Ossie Davis as the caretaker of an old movie theater.
- The Scrooge: The older man in The Lost Christmas Eve, especially his song 'What is Christmas'.
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