The theatre, which was named after one of Romania's most famous poets and actors, hosts the Ia?i Romanian National Opera and is listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments. It has recently undergone a lengthy seven-year renovation during which time its programme of events was spread out across theatres all over Romania.
"This disadvantage of multiple locations has transformed over time into an advantage for us," explains Mr Aurel Anton, Chief Lighting Engineer at the theatre. "Throughout this time we were able to accumulate knowledge and experience from all these other theatres which helped us to define precisely what we wanted for our newly refurbished building."
High on the National Theatre Vasile Alecsandri priorities was the new lighting equipment from Robert Juliat.
A plethora of theatre lanterns including RJ 329 HPC 2500W and RJ 310 HPC 2500W PC, Pebble and Fresnels fixtures were installed, all of which have 200mm lenses for maximum light output. These were augmented by a large number of RJ 306 1000W Lutin PC units which have interchangeable lenses that enable them to be transformed into Pebble or Fresnel fixtures.
The National Theatre Vasile Alecsandri's programme incorporates all major theatre and opera performances within the same building - a fact which increases the technical requirements of the venue. "The Theatre has become a flagship in terms of the high standard of technical equipment we offer," says Mr Anton.
The new inventory of profile fixtures therefore includes 1200W RJ 600 SX series zoom profiles and 2500W RJ 700 SX series zoom profiles with the full range of available beam angles. All the new Robert Juliat fixtures are used comprehensively from front of house positions, on-stage ladders, low level side lighting positions and as back light.
"We chose the Robert Juliat fixtures because of the great optical system which can be found inside each RJ fixture," says Mr Anton. "It is also very important to highlight the unique performances of the PC fixtures which use clear PC lenses. We were also motivated to chose the RJ products because of the high quality focusing mechanism in every unit."
The inventory is completed by a complement of Alex 2500W tungsten and Topaze 1200W MSD 7/14° followspots.
The Theater Vasile Alecsandri was the most important recent project for dB Technolight which has proved to be a successful project. "The products supplied by dB Technolight are flawless, and the services are excellent," says Mr Anton, "a fact which motivated us to work with them as suppliers."
(Jim Evans)
