Les Feluettes (‘Lilies’) made its world premiere at the Opera de Montreal recently, playing to full houses during its four-night run. LD Martin Labrecque utilised seven Clay Paky Scenius Spots for the new production.
Written by Quebec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard and with music by Kevin March, Les Feluettes is a play that explores same-gender relationships in the early 20th century.
The opera marked Labrecque’s first use of Scenius Spots. He frequently deploys other Clay Paky fixtures, using them on Cirque du Soleil productions and the Pan American Games’ opening ceremonies last summer. For Les Feluettes, Labrecque lit eight tableaux showing different locations and time periods in monochromatic palettes of amber and blue. The orchestra sat upstage, behind a black scrim, instead of in the pit.
“Because the orchestra was on stage, all the action took place downstage. So we created four FOH positions for the primary Scenius fixtures, which were mostly used as general ambience and gobo washes, mostly in white or full CTO,” Labrecque explained. Three additional Scenius Spots were positioned on stage as backlights.
For the big fire sequence projections of the blaze were mixed with Scenius lighting effects on a giant white sheet suspended over the stage. “We combined the projections with Scenius in its colour mode and with two gobos to make the fire look as realistic as possible,” said Labrecque.
