The show was written by Da Vinci with Gino Landi and Paolo Caiazzo, and combines music, sketches (entrusted to the actor Lello Radice) and narratives (read by Pasquale Panella).
"I met Sal Da Vinci," lighting designer Francesco Adinolfi reports. "During the amazing success of C'era una volta Scugnizzi (Once upon a time there were street urchins), a musical written by Claudio Mattone (music and lyrics) and Claudio Mattone and Enrico Vaime (script) in 2002. The work was inspired by the 1989 film Scugnizzi (street urchins) directed by Nanni Loy. The musical was staged for the first time in 2002 and, because of its enormous success, restaged during the 2010-2011 winter season."
Adinolfi continues, "For this new show, my idea of using three large 20 x 16ft triangular frames, one inside the other, was approved enthusiastically. They were geometrically simple to build thanks to the common structural systems used in the show. Staggered aluminium elements illuminated by LED strips inside them were hung on hoists in the trusses so they could be dynamically controlled by DMX protocol from the console. I used a GrandMa 1 full size to program all the musical and acting sequences, from the first to the last.
"Sal Da Vinci had not yet seen the latest generation Clay Paky lights and the outstanding features and performance of the Alpha Beam and Sharpy Beam series. When he saw them, he was very enthusiastic. My requests were accepted with the same enthusiasm by the producers too."
"We installed 20 Clay Paky lights on the lighting rig for the musical: six Sharpy 300s on the central triangular frame, four Alpha 700 HPEs on the stage, five Alpha Beam 300s on the left and another five on the right. Other LED wash lights provided the general lighting when a lot of people were on stage: Sal Da Vinci, six musicians and eight dancers. Lello Radice played the comic part of the body guard."
Thanks to the work of set designer Luigi Ferrigno, the whole stage was flooded with light. The entire backdrop and various side elements on the stage were decorated with a mirror effect, thanks to silver strips, which - on one side - reflected the light over the entire stage and - on the other - cleverly hid sixteen ACL bars, which created a wall of light once lit.
(Jim Evans)
