Show director, Francisco Negrin, describes the elegant ice-skating show as "a generator of the energy of shadows and light". The two acts depict very different aspects, where Act I starts with the dark energy in violent and chaotic forms exploring the dark sides of male/female relationships with both loneliness and desire. The desire turns into passionate lust and then into real love. Act II, however, is about light, joy, playfulness culminating in a celebratory finale.
For such an impressive and emotional show, lighting played an essential role. And with a lighting designer on board internationally recognised for his lighting for large scale live performances, many versatile effects were taken into use.
"I have a particular interest in working on productions, which rely on a bold lighting design to engage the audience and tell the story. I love collaborating with creative and technical teams to make thrilling live shows", says Bruno Poet.
Using the entire open-air arena as canvas Bruno Poet opted for a SGM LED solution. "These LED lights provided the most flexible solution for the jobs I needed them to do. There are no conventional fixtures that could have been used in this way. I see it as choosing the best tool for the job."
Rental company Musical Box, from Verona, supplied 150 SGM RGBA SixPack LED blinders, containing each six individually controllable 40W outputs, and 82 SGM P-5 RGBW wash lights, receiving the lighting designer's full recommendations for their handling of the entire process.
The impressive facilities of Verona Arena demanded for an extraordinary presentation while at the same time providing some challenges for the lighting designer in the sense of there being no roof structure. "It's a technical challenge when you cannot hang lights overhead, and have to protect all the equipment from the rain. Another issue is dealing with the ice and the projection - any light that hits the surface of the ice kills the projection, and any backlight reflects off the ice and blinds the audience," says Poet.
Selecting lighting fixtures from SGM eliminated the need for protecting the lights as they are IP65 rated, which was one of the main reasons for the designer to specify them for this show and for a future outdoor project in Bregenz.
(Jim Evans)
