As a vibrant contemporary production, Tangier Tattoo is an operatic thriller and represents a new departure for Glyndebourne as well as a revolutionary development in the opera world. Designed to attract a new younger audience, the production is created by the trio of composer John Lunn, librettist Stephen Plaice and director Stephen Langridge.
The SFX system has been deployed to store and playback a host of sound FX and video footage. Glyndebourne's AV Systems Operator, Simon Yapp, collaborated with Orbital's Tom Byrne to design and supply the workstation, which was tailored to his exact specifications at Orbital's HQ.
Simon Yapp comments, "Old style tools like a Revox tape deck, minidisk player, sound mixer and paper cue sheet are replicated with brilliant software, which is enormously powerful yet amazingly simple to use.I can now sit anywhere at the end of a CAT 5 with just monitor, keyboard and mouse, but importantly often close to the director sitting in the stalls. This helps the creative process enormously.
What previously might have taken me hours to change or adjust during a rehearsal, can be made live and is ready in minutes. By saving time, SFX also saves money, as there might be a 50-piece orchestra and 60-strong chorus on stage, charging by the minute. SFX has undoubtedly augmented the production process on a number of levels."
Glyndebourne's version of Pro Audio Show Control software also acts as a video server providing high-resolution video imagery on the production.
(Jim Evans)
