Claypaky Xtylos debuts at Royal Albert Hall
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The Classical Spectacular debuted in October 1988 and has been marked by perennial extravaganzas - lasers, lighting effects, fireworks - accompanying a classical music repertoire.
Lighting designer Durham Marenghi joined the Classical Spectacular family 30 years ago in an era before there were moving lights. But Marenghi quickly began to introduce lighting innovations, including many lighting fixtures used in rock ’n roll but new to the concert hall. He designs a new architecture for the lighting rig every two or three years using the best technology on the market to keep pace with a production that lives up to its name in its spectacular size and scale.
This year’s show, once again produced by Raymond Gubbay Limited, featured Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, Puccini’s Nessun Dorma and othjer favourites.
New to the show this season were nine Claypaky Xtylos, which Marenghi featured on the prow of the new rig. The Xtylos is a compact beam moving light with a tailor-made laser source. Claypaky fixtures dominated the rig and numbered 12 Scenius Spots, four Scenius Unicos, eight Mythos2, 48 Sharpy Wash 330s and 16 Sharpys.
(Jim Evans)
