Lighting and control equipment for the event was supplied by Lightpower, who provided Clay Paky fixtures including 37 Stage Color 1200, 26 Stage Zoom 1200 and four Stage Profile Plus SV fixtures - the latter being Clay Paky’s sophisticated new moving body beam-shaper. Clay Paky’s projectors are well suited to theatrical presentations, due to their high quality optics and silent operation, which is taken a step further in the ‘Silent Version’ (SV) series of moving body projectors designed specifically for such applications.
"The lighting was a great challenge for the whole production, as we had to span large spaces and floodlight enormous areas", says lighting director Harald Frings. "It was not easy to mount all the lights on such a large stage of 40m wide by 20m long. The beautiful cathedral of Worms was to remain visible as a background, making it impossible to place any back-lights there. The only place to hang moving lights were the backs of the stand. However, by doing so, the light from the front fell in a very small angle. Because of this, we tried to use the light from the side that reached the stage floor after filtering through the big trees on the stage. In addition, moving lights were placed in the position of floor aprons."
Frings continued: "The standard lighting format of a theatre was not provided in Worms. Therefore, we had the opportunity to show the possibilities of moving lights for classical use in theatres. On this occasion, it became clear that it would be impossible to evoke these new moods with conventional tools."
Everything went smoothly during the première on 17 August, and the more than 2,000 guests expressed their enthusiasm with standing ovations. Altogether, there were 12 performances attracting a total of more than 26,000 visitors and further performances are planned for the future.
(Lee Baldock)
