For the Giudizio Universale: Michelangelo and the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel show’s lighting, show creator Marco Balich worked alongside award-winning designers Rob Halliday and Bruno Poet who selected a range of ADB and Claypaky lighting products.
Running at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome the show features live theatrical performances, dance and aerial acrobatics. Vivid, 270° high-resolution projections of Michelangelo’s work, created by live video design company, Luke Halls Studio are mapped across a ‘vaulted’ digital projection surface, conceived for the production by architectural entertainment specialist Stufish.
Onstage sidelight is provided by the ADB Warp, ADB’s zoom profile spotlight and the Claypaky Scenius Unico, a moving head spotlight featuring the brand’s most advanced framing system. Dreamlike effects of performers floating through space or emerging from the onstage projections are assisted by the focused light delivered via the Unico’s sophisticated framing system and the Warp’s on-board Ring Control system.
“Because of the size of the venue’s stage, we had to work with limited roof and wing space as well as restricted clearance distances between the onstage scenic elements,” explained Poet.
“As a result, fixtures such as the Scenius Unico, Warp and Claypaky K-EYE K10 LED wash lights were partly built-in to the stage’s movable scenery, as well as attached to removable trollies and mounted to three overhead rigging ladders.”
The showpiece however, is Halliday and Poet’s specially commissioned ‘SVOBODA Sun’ – a 4.5m custom-built circle made from ADB’s classic batten fixture, the ADB SVOBODA.
“The show is largely lit with cool-coloured moving lights and by beautiful projection,” continued Halliday. “For the end of the show, we wanted a light that would reach out and touch the audience, evoking the heat and fire of the sun. The Svoboda Sun connects the audience to the show in a beautiful, yet visceral way.”
The ADB SVOBODA was co-designed over 50 years ago by the famous Czech scenographer Josef Svoboda. The batten fixture comprises 9 or 10 24V lamps, delivering a very bright and quasi-parallel light beam, known as a Light Curtain. Claypaky SharBars, an LED version of the same light curtain effect, feature as backlights and toplights, while the Claypaky ShowBatten 100 up-lights the stage’s front grille.
From positions at the front edge of the stage, along with the vomitoriums and on a cleverly engineered triple flying bar, the new Claypaky Axcor Beam 300 provides aerial beam effects.
“This LED source luminaire was selected for its high output, low power beam amid concerns around the auditorium’s power restrictions, rising heat levels and long-term running costs,” said Poet. “We also chose the fixture because of its fade quality, which is much better than that of the previous mechanical-dimmer fixtures.”
A number of the Claypaky Axcor Beam 300s were rigged alongside Claypaky Scenius Unico fixtures in the long ‘side slots’ flanking the auditorium’s projection surface.
“We wanted to create a total experience – artistic, emotional and spiritual. Our story about the genesis of a masterpiece has been enhanced into an unforgettable live experience thanks to modern lighting technology from Claypaky and ADB,” concluded creator and co-director of the show, Marco Balich.