COPENHAGEN, Denmark – This
spring, the Royal Danish Opera staged Tchaikovsky’s
famous ballet, Swan Lake, in a new production under the direction of Nikolaj Hübbe, Chief of the Danish Opera, and Silja Schandorff, Director. Staged for the
first time almost 150 years ago, countless versions of the tragic love story of
Swan Lake have since been shown in theatres across the globe. To bring new life
to the classic piece for the Royal Danish Opera (RDO), Hübbe and Schandorff
called upon Finnish Designer, Mikki Kunttu to
develop an original lighting, video and set design. Kunttu’s minimalistic set
design meant that every element played a significant role in bringing the the
production to life, including HARMAN Martin Professional’s VC-Strips and MAC
Viper Profile lighting fixtures.
Kunttu has
worked with the Royal Danish Opera on similar productions in the past. However,
this is the first time he has developed every aspect of the lighting, video and
set design in an RDO production. The first challenge presented itself to
Kunttu early on in the design process: how creative was he allowed to get
within the context of the Swan Lake ballet? Ballet as a genre is traditionally
connected with elements such as landscape-painted backdrops and projections
with illustrations. Kunttu and his team wanted to challenge tradition with a
new approach, but first Kunttu immersed himself in the Swan Lake story.
“I needed to get to the
core of the story to understand what makes it so successful decade after
decade,” said Kunttu. “Only after doing that was I able to form my own vision
and felt comfortable presenting it to the rest of the team. Once I’m satisfied that
I’ve done my basic work, I’m ready to get creative.”
As an experienced lighting
and set designer in genres ranging from concerts to theatre and TV, Kunttu
always looks for and tries to represent the essence in his designs. His
methodology is much the same whether designing for a concert or a ballet.
“Often you’re hoping to
evoke the same kind of emotions regardless of the application you’re designing
for,” said Kunttu. “That part is the same – your toolbox just varies slightly
in the different fields.”
In the case of Swan Lake,
the traditional elements gradually disappeared from the design and the basic
idea of mixing video, set and lighting design was conceived. This idea was so
strong and had so much potential that there was no need for anything else.
“One of the secrets is
being able to see what you don’t need and then make the bold choice to remove
them from the production,” said Kunttu.
One of the main challenges
in ballet is that the stage floor needs to be kept free of scenographic
elements to leave space for the dancers. Normally, you would frame the stage
with legs and borders, but Kunttu wanted to overcome this somehow and convert
the legs and border to become one of the performers. He envisioned a dynamic
structure flying above the stage – being able to travel in the air like
feathers but at the same time possessing a dark and heavy undertone. He wanted
it to represent the darker side in the story and work as its own character.
Thus, Kunttu and his team
developed a cut-out structure with an abstract shape to sometimes reference
elements in the story, such as a castle. The appearance of the structure
depended on the video content projected onto it and through it as well as how
the structure was lit.
Once the structure design
was in place, Kunttu’s vision for the lighting design quickly developed. He
used eight towers of MAC Viper Profiles to add dimensionality and create a
space without directly lighting the dancers. MAC III Washes, Profiles and
Performances were used to add volume and heavy color to the production.
Kunttu had gotten a chance
to test the MAC Viper Profiles before specifying them for Swan Lake, and he was
immediately fond of them.
“I am really impressed with
the MAC Viper Profiles,” said Kunttu. “It delivers a fantastic quality of light
and an amazing output. It’s silent, the optics are great and there’s so much
punch for a lamp this small.”
32 VC-Strips of 4 meters
each were also part of the production. In the first lake scene the fixtures
served purely as set elements with no content displayed on them. They were then
lowered all the way down to stage level with the dancers moving around them as
if they were trees, symbolizing the swans’ journey through the dark forests
towards the lake. In the second act, Kunttu used the fixtures as living pixels
resembling stars above the Swan Lake.
“This is a creative video
tool with a lot of potential,” said Kunttu. “It fits perfectly into a
production like this, where it can take on several functions both as a lighting
fixture, as a set piece and a video surface.”
Martin Equipment
·
MAC Viper Profile, 48 pcs.
·
MAC III Performance, Profile and Wash, 30 pcs.
·
VC-Strips, 320 pcs. (16x1, 25 mm built into 32
pcs. 4 m strips)
·
P3-300 Controller, 1 pc.
To watch the trailer video
for the Swan Lake production, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQnNcpWAk7M&feature=youtu.be
To watch a behind the
scenes video, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-HU9wYKBOM&feature=youtu.be
To read the full story,
please visit: http://www.martin.com/en-US/View-Case?pid=13699&id=217&itemId=CaseStory:14556
As a world leader in the creation
of dynamic lighting solutions for the entertainment, architectural, and
commercial sectors, Martin lighting and video systems are renowned the world
over. Martin also offers a range of advanced lighting controllers and media
servers, as well as a complete line of smoke machines as a complement to
intelligent lighting. Martin operates the industry’s most complete and capable
distributor network with local partners in nearly 100 countries. Founded in
1987 and based in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin is the lighting division of global
infotainment and audio company HARMAN International Industries. For more
information please visit: http://www.martin.com
HARMAN (harman.com) designs
and engineers connected products and solutions for consumers, automakers, and
enterprises worldwide, including audio, visual and infotainment systems;
enterprise automation solutions; and software services. With leading brands
including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® , Mark Levinson ® and
Revel®, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment
venues where they perform around the world. HARMAN also is a technology and
integration services leader for the Automotive, Mobile, Telecommunications and
Enterprise markets. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are
equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. The Company’s software
solutions power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected,
integrated, personalized, adaptive and secure across all platforms, from the
work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 25,000
people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.9 billion
during the last 12 months ended March 31, 2015.
0 comments:
Post a Comment