White Light Joins Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras at V&A Museum
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The three Monteverdi ensembles – The Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique – are a leading force on the international music scene. World-class musicians from across the globe come together to share the distinct vision of Founder and Artistic Director Sir John Eliot Gardiner in ground-breaking projects. Last year, the Choir and Orchestras embarked on an international tour across Europe and the US. This culminated in a final concert at the V & A Museum’s Raphael Gallery and White Light provided the technical support.
The final concert was overseen by the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras production personnel, who comments: “This concluding concert was the only London date for the Monteverdi 450 Tour so we wanted to make it an unforgettable occasion. It was also a celebration of 50 years since Sir John Eliot Gardiner first conducted at the V&A with his newly formed Monteverdi Choir to mark the Venetian master’s 400th anniversary in 1967”.
As an approved supplier to the V&A Museum, WL was approved to provide the production support. WL’s Project Manager Phil Gladman comments: “Our role on the evening was to provide the lighting, PA system, rigging and staging for the concert. We also worked closely with the lighting designer Rick Fisher to ensure we brought his creative vision to life”.
The evening offered a fully immersive event in which guests entered the Museum and walked around the various spaces enjoying seemingly impromptu performances from the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra performers. WL was responsible for lighting each one. Phil explains: “These promenade performances around the museum were almost like pop-up shows. Along with uplighters, we also drew on guerrilla lighting to ensure each performer had complete coverage in their various positions”.
The promenade ‘pop-up’ performances were part of the build up to the final performance of the evening within the Raphael Gallery, which was a complete sell out. WL had to provide the complete staging for the Choir and Orchestras. Phil states: “In the Raphael, we supplied a 9 x 8m deep stage on which the performances could take place. The stage needed to be vast in order to fit all of the musicians on and literally took up half of the room. We had to arrive at 8am the previous morning simply to store it all. On the show day itself, we arrived at 6am and it took three hours to construct”.
Across the evening, WL drew on CORE Lighting ColourPoints for uplighting along with Chroma-Q Color Force 72 Battens. The company also supplied ETC Source 4 Profiles and Elation SixPARS; all of which were controlled via an ETC Ion 1K Console. WL also supplied the audio reinforcement, which included EMS121 Loudspeakers and an A&H QU-24 sound-desk.
The sell-out event was a huge success and had more than 400 people in attendance in the Raphael Gallery, with even more following the pop-up events around the museum.
Phil adds: “It was fantastic to work in a venue such as the V&A and turn it into an immersive environment. From the bespoke lighting to the custom-made staging, this project showcased the wide range of production support we’re able to offer our clients”.
The team at Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras stated: “We were delighted with the service we received from WL and for all their help in making the final Monteverdi concert an unforgettable evening”.
Photos courtesy of Grace Ko and T Max Productions.
Following its opening on Broadway in 1961, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is considered to be one of the most iconic musicals of all time. With music by the legendary Frank Loesser, the musical is a past recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama along with the Tony Award for Best Musical and Best Book. It was recently revived at London’s iconic Wilton’s Music Hall and White Light supplied the equipment.
This was the first time that Nic had worked at Wilton’s Music Hall. He states: “While the venue’s architecture is truly stunning, it does throw up a number of issues; namely the lack of overhead rigging on the forestage which is where the majority of our show was staged! I negated this by rigging all of the front of house from the circle front to get light onto the fore stage. This shallow angle front light worked well with the ‘comic book’ nature of the show and design”.
He adds: “Side and backlight was a combination of Elation SixPARs and Stairville LED Pars and we dressed the large building facade set piece with Chauvet COLORado 72 Tour battens. Having an infinite colour palette available from these few units allowed a huge number of looks to be created. Coemar Infinity M Spots were used from front of house positions and Martin MAC 700 Spots were used for backlight. I really liked being able to call on the animation wheel of the Mac 700’s to layer effects over the stage and it really added a lot to my overall design”.