Opera Makers - Lighting Design

**The images used in the journal are for illustrative purposes and the original source files and images for full review are attached on Moddle

Research

For my allocation I researched both the show and creative team so that I was fully informed before I began working on the production. Although I completed research on the individual pieces before joining the rehearsal room, I found observing the rehearsal process for these scenes to provide me with far more context and was incredibly helpful in understanding the pieces to a further extent.

Creative Team

I had previously worked with Martin in third year on Opera 2 as ALD and in second year on Angel Esmeralda as lighting programmer. Martin works part-time at Guildhall as a Resident Producer and so is experienced in teaching and mentoring but also maintains a professional presence in the industry. Martin directs predominantly opera and has directed a number of shows at Guildhall as well externally for Opera Holland Park and Mid Wales Opera among a number of others (See reference 1 & 2).

Louie Whitemore, the designer for Opera Makers designs a mixture of theatre, opera and ballet and trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has designed for English National Ballet, Royal Danish Opera and a number of others designing set and costumes (See reference 11).

Eleanor Burke, the assistant director for Opera Makers, also work predominantly in opera and is currently completing a Junior Artists Fellowship at Guildhall, and has worked alongside Martin throughout the year. Eleanor is the founder and artistic director of Green Opera which strives to create opera which is environmentally sustainable.

Orfeo ed Euridice

Orfeo ed Euridice was composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck in 1762 and is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus (See reference 5). It is set to an italian libretto written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi and was first performed in Vienna on the 5th of October 1762. Although an italian opera, Orfeo is most celebrated in France where it was set to a French libretto written by Pierre-Louis Moline (See reference 4). Orfeo ed Euridice is an operatic interpretation of the oldest surviving opera Euridice by Jacopo Peri, which also inspired other interpretations such as L’Orfeo and Orfeo & Majnun (See reference 4). The story follows Orfeo, who is determined to bring Euridice, his dead wife back to life. He goes to the underworld to attempt to resurrect Euridice under the condition that he cannot look at her or explain what is happening. She is brought back to life, but distressed that Orfeo will not look at her and so unable to take it anymore Orfeo looks at Euridice and she dies again (See reference 3). In Opera Scenes the opening recitative and duet from Act 3 where Euridice is brought back to life will be performed.

Il Pirata

Il Pirata was composed by Vincenzo Bellini in 1827 with an italian libretto written by Felice Romani. The opera tells the tale of Imogene who married to Ernesto to save her father from death in prison. However she is in love with Gualtiero and when his pirate ship is cast ashore she recognises his voice from afar. They reunite but Gualtiero insists he must fight Ernesto who proceeds to shoot him (See reference 6). In Opera Scenes the ending trio and scene where Ernesto fights Gualtiero will be performed.

The Rape of Lucretia

The Rape of Lucretia is a English opera composed by Benjamin Britten with a libretto by Ronald Duncan. The opera saw it’s world premiere in Glyndebourne in 1946 and follows the story of a prince, Tarquinius. Tarquinius is encouraged by a general he is drinking with to attempt to test whether Lucretia is faithful by attempting to court her himself while her husband, Collatinus, is away. Tarquinius rides to Rome and goes into Lucretia’s room in the night. He forces himself onto her and she is left traumatised and afraid (See reference 7). The beginning of Act 2 when Tarquinius enters Lucretia’s bedroom will be performed in Opera Scenes.

Die Fledermaus

Die Fledermaus is German opera composed by Johann Strauss, Jr with a libretto written by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, with its world premiere in Vienna in 1874. Die Fledermaus is comedic look at a dysfunctional husband Gabriel and wife Rosalinde, who both make little attempt to stay faithful whilst also set on proving the other has been promiscuous. By the end they both end up catching each other in their traps and realise that they are both as bad as each other (See reference 8). In Opera Scenes No.4 will be performed.

Der Rosenkavalier

Der Rosenkavalier is composed by Richard Strauss in 1911 with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Der Rosenkavalier follows the story of two young lovers who are unable to be together. Sophie is set to marry Och, a barron she has never met but Octavian and Sophie are in love. After hatching a plan they fool Och and manage to get their way by the end (See reference 9). In Opera Scenes, scene 2 where Octavian presents Sophie with silver rose will be performed.

Der Schauspieldirektor

Der Schauspieldirektor was composed by Mozart in 1786 as after-dinner entertainment for Joseph II taking a comic look at the backstage world with the piece mocking backstage politics (See reference 10). In Opera Scenes trio No.3 will be performed.

Journal 

Pre-Allocation

As LD I did a certain degree of preliminary work before the allocation began to ensure I was properly briefed and ready for my allocation and the design process. This also meant that I would have more involvement over the initial design of the piece and would have a more thorough knowledge as the we got into the rehearsal period. I attended the initial white card at the beginning of term which give me a good understanding of the set and show overall. Martin explained that given the colour of the set, lighting would be crucial for setting the scene, and that I should be involved in design discussions early on. At the end of week 5 I met with Martin and Louie who gave me a more in depth explanation of each of the scenes, how they imagined them looking and what was happening in them. This was an incredibly useful meeting as I was then able to start to form a basic structure for my design and incorporate specific design elements that had been asked for.

Week 1

I spent the first week of my allocation largely gathering more information so that I would be fully informed. It was crucial to ensure that I hadn’t missed any crucial bits of information. I am happy with how this went and by the end of the week I was confident that I had the information that I needed. There were still a few floating questions about orchestra arrangement and a couple of lighting specific questions but I was comfortable that I was aware of these and so they would not ‘drop off my radar’.

After some enquiry I was able to get hold of the midi tracks for the makers operas, as well as a playlist of the other scenes we would be doing and so I spent some time going through these. First without looking at the score so that I could get the ‘feeling’ of the scene without any distractions. I then went back again a couple of time and noted down musically important moments and significant changes of pace or tone.

I caught up with Sam and Eve and went through the information I had, requirements of the show and what they would need to do. The meeting went well and the overall atmosphere was very positive. Although neither Sam or Eve have done a Prod LX role before they were both very willing to learn, and I was confident that they would do a great job.

I started building a skeleton Vectorworks file with basic lights in place for a front and top cover. I moved this into a private Sharepoint folder where I would store all my lighting design related files. Having used Rory’s LD folder it was clear that one central location for all of my paperwork and media files would be essential in having quick access to the files I needed. This also ensured that I would have backups at all times. I also created a pinterest board to collate images that would inspire the look and feel of each scene which is available at https://www.pinterest.co.uk/finlayganderson/opera-makers/.

Week 2

Having spoken to Sam and Eve about the plan, I set about getting the remaining information I needed to finish it. Namely, the lights we would need in the orchestra for Lucretia which I would need to wait until rehearsals for.

Another issue I ran into early on was the lack of colour changing options available in the Studio Theatre. While I had 8 moving lights with colour changing functionality these would be busy as specials for most of the show and so I was keen to secure some Lustrs. Unfortunately after enquiring with the MAs who were using the Milton Court Theatre I wouldn’t be able to borrow any from there. I also looked at the possibility of hiring however, given the cost of the set this would be prohibitively expensive for just 4 Lustrs.

As a last ditch effort I got in touch with Stuart Crane from Whitelight, who had done a World of Work talk with us in second year. He suggested instead switching to ETC Coloursources which used red, green, blue and lime but were still able to produce good quality colour mixing, with impressive whites (an area cheap LEDs are notoriously bad for). It still wasn’t clear though, even with this concession whether we would be able to afford these.

Throughout the week I opted to spend the majority of my time in the rehearsal room. I wanted to ensure that I had seen most, if not all the scenes in their entirety before going into focus and plotting. Having not designed an opera before I wanted to make sure I was well prepared and was completely comfortable with the music and blocking. As the rehearsals happened I would make relevant notes on blocking, blackouts, mood and feel. This also allowed me to ask Martin questions and get explanations on some of the more abstract parts of the operas, as well as building trust and rapport.

I did however also visit Guildhall throughout the week to keep Sam, Eve and Anna up to date and make sure that they were happy and that they had all the information they needed. Anna was incredibly helpful in advising me on some improvements I could make to my plan and by Thursday I had distributed the plan, ready for the scaff session on Friday.

Week 3

In week 3 fit-up began, although there were a number of delays with the order of the set which put our focus dates in jeopardy. I worked with Matt and Anna to reschedule where necessary and looked at some contingency plans for worst case scenarios with the set. I was splitting my time between the rehearsal room and Guildhall, although overall our lighting fit-up was going well and so I was able to focus most of my time still in the rehearsal room.

On Monday Stuart got back to me and was able to offer 6 Coloursources at a doable price and so I was thankfully able to secure these for side lighting. Anna was also able to get us 2 Lustrs which I used to cover the top of the platform. This, combined with the colour changing sidelight was able to perfectly pair up to quickly move the feel between scenes without needing a full blackout, as would be required with scrollers. I used scrollers in F101s for the top wash, which would provide a colour wash onstage and would be especially useful in the darker scenes where colour can be used to create the atmosphere.

I created a magic sheet of the rig to help keep track of the lights in a more easy to digest way, as well as representing groups in an intuitive way. I found this useful throughout the week as it acted as a quick reference when I was calling out channels although by the end I hoped to have them all memorised.

On Thursday we started focus although this was limited in scope as much of the set had not been rigged yet and I decided to work through the key areas that we could do without the set and then make any necessary tweaks on Friday. We started with facelight which proved to be trickier than anticipated. Positioning wise, I have put one row of facelight in the grid and another on an advance bar fixed with unistrut above the audience. I chose this as this would allow me to maintain a 45deg angle to the signers ensuring the light wasn’t overly flat but still caught faces. I didn’t end up using a mccandless cover as I had only a limited number of units and wanted to ensure that I would have enough independent areas onstage.

One issue that I didn’t anticipate with these, was blending vertically. Having previously focused a front cover in the studio I felt confident that this wouldn’t be an issue but I found it more more challenging with the lanterns positioned so close to the performers. As a result we had to do several passes on these and this is an area I am aware I would have to be more careful with in future. Furthermore due to the differences in distance from the front to the back of the beam being much larger compared to the overall distance than usual I found that performers would appear less well lit if they were stood further back but still in the beam. This meant that singers standing directly in front of the platform appeared to be less bright than those far downstage. Although I was aware of this concept as part of the inverse square law, this provided a clear practical example of why it is so important to understand.
I was aware at this point that I also needed to provide Ophir with a cuelist ahead of plotting and tech. I decided to go with a spreadsheet as Rory had done with Little Green Swallow, but created a spreadsheet that syncs automatically so that Ophir would see any changes I had made. This proved to be incredibly useful as he was able to review my cues before our ‘cues in the book’ sessions and we could then simply go over them in more detail in person.

Week 4

In week 4 we began plotting, and I was acutely aware that we would need to, as far as possible, get enough plotted so that we would ideally not be plotting during tech. Whilst also ensuring that Martin had seen the majority of the design before we got into tech. As a result I had to be strategic about how I used my time and so with two sessions, one with and one without Martin, I opted to spend the morning session without Martin plotting the first couple of scenes and then creating states for each scene. This meant that I would be able to show Martin the scenes whilst still plotting enough to prevent us needing to plot during tech.

This worked out well and in the evening session Martin was able to look at the states that I had plotted and fit them into his vision for the scenes. He didn’t ask for a lot of changes and allowed me to work them into my design rather than prescribing what I should do. I was positive in my receipt of his feedback and provided explanation for my design where necessary but also crucially listened carefully to his points. I found this attitude led to a greater trust from Martin as he was aware that I was willing to listen and work with him and make changes where necessary.

Before the first dress I added Ellie to the spreadsheet and so both myself and Ellie were able to add notes inline with cues that we could go back and fix in evening sessions. This became especially useful as I colour coded cues and notes that had been changed. This meant that Ellie could see where we had got to in each session and we both had a clear record of what had and hadn’t been changed/fixed.

Week 5

This week started with 2 days of dress rehearsals which were very useful for me as they allowed an opportunity to review how the lighting looked under performance conditions and then allowed time at the end to fix any issues. One thing I noticed under performance conditions was that the singers would tend to move around more onstage than they had in both the rehearsal room and during tech. I made adjustments for this in the evening notes sessions and by the end of Monday the only remaining notes were small notes on visibility onstage. It was a careful balance to maintain the look and feel of the scene while still ensuring that all the singers were visible at all times. This was especially challenging when they moved far down-stage as my lights for their face were very limited and in darker scenes where the facelights would have to be at a low intensity they would be far too warm for the scene. In future I would have added a colder wash to cover the very front of the stage, which would have mitigated this issue.

I also found the TW1s to be too warm at low intensities, and adding cyan did not counteract this in many cases but instead created a new, different colour. As a result I used the mechanical shutter to dim them down while their tungsten lamp was still at full to improve this, although this did add some complexity to marking, which Anna and Eve were able to resolve. This was something I had learned working with Rory and came in incredibly useful on the darker pieces. Another technique I learned on Opera 2 was to dip lights that could not colour change and then bring them back in once they had marked using follow cue timings. This relies on there being enough lights available to cover the change but I found that the sidelights and lustrs on the platform were able to cover these changes well. With some tweaking of timing I was able to make the changes look almost seamless. I have found that my allocation on Opera 2 has prepared me well for my lighting design and that by having a glimpse into the process of the lighting design and the expectations that come with the role that I was well prepared for my design.

Although there are parts of my design I would do differently in hindsight (I doubt there is a LD who doesn’t feel like that about any of their designs), I have really enjoyed this role and feel this has been a great opportunity to learn more in depth about being a lighting designer. There were some unexpected issues, but I was able to resolve these and I am happy with the end product and the working relationships I built up with Martin, Louie and Ellie.

Week 6

On week 6 I continued to check in with the team and review show reports but there were no major notes throughout the week.

Bibliography

1. Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2021) Martin Lloyd-Evans, Available at: https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/music/staff/teaching_staff/department/6-department-of-opera-studies/358-martin-lloyd-evans/ (Accessed: May 2021).

2. Martin Lloyd-Evans (2021) Martin Lloyd-Evans, Available at: http://www.martinlloyd-evans.co.uk/Site5/Martin_Lloyd-Evans/Martin_Lloyd-Evans.html (Accessed: May 2021).

3. Metropolitan Opera (2021) Metropolitan Opera | Orfeo ed Euridice, Available at: https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/orfeo-ed-euridice/ (Accessed: May 2021).

4. Irish National Opera (2021) Orfeo ed Euridice - Irish National Opera | OperaVision, Available at: https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/flashback/orfeo-ed-euridice-irish-national-opera#about (Accessed: May 2021).

5. Wikipedia (2021) Orfeo ed Euridice - Wikipedia, Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orfeo_ed_Euridice (Accessed: May 2021).

6.Metropolitan Opera (2021) Metropolitan Opera | Il Pirata, Available at: https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/il-pirata/ (Accessed: May 2021).

7. Boosey Hawkes (2021) Benjamin Britten Rape of Lucretia, Available at: https://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moreDetails?musicID=7444 (Accessed: May 2021).

8. Metropolitan Opera (2021) Metropolitan Opera | Die Fledermaus, Available at: https://www.metopera.org/user-information/synopses-archive/die-fledermaus (Accessed: May 2021).

9. Metropolitan Opera (2021) Metropolitan Opera | Der Rosenkavalier, Available at: https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/der-rosenkavalier/ (Accessed: May 2021).

10. MONNAIE / DE MUNT (2021) Der Schauspieldirektor | La Monnaie / Der Munt, Available at: https://www.lamonnaie.be/en/program/1765-der-schauspieldirektor (Accessed: May 2021).

11. Louie Whitemore (2021) Louie Whitemore, Available at: http://louiewhitemore.com/ (Accessed: May 2021).