Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building hosted Melbourne Opera’s stunning production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the first time an opera has performed in this iconic venue.
The grandeur of Wagner’s masterpiece came to life with a dynamic lighting design by the talented Philip Lethlean, featuring cutting-edge fixtures from Martin Professional. The golden trio of Martin’s latest innovation – the new powerful Martin MAC Viper XIP, the vibrant Martin Aura PXL, and the compact yet punchy Martin MAC One – helped create a truly immersive and unforgettable operatic experience. StarLite Productions supplied lighting and crew.
The venue wasn’t the easiest in which to stage a light show. The lighting competed with daylight for the first 90 minutes of the four-hour production as the building didn’t black out. Fixture placement was tricky as no overhead trusses were allowed apart from one over the seating bank. Also, you couldn’t have any haze or smoke and nothing in the dome.
“Everything we did had to be approved by engineers; it was worse than doing an outdoor gig!” commented Philip. “It was quite limiting. I had no overhead lighting for the set.”
Fortunately, Philip had seven compact Martin MAC Ones that he discreetly placed in the set’s open-framed, two-story high ceiling.
“The MAC Ones are great because you can sneak them into little corners to get a discreet shot, and they zoom and are pretty bright for their size,” he said.
Philip used the Martin MAC Viper XIP for the first time, and he was impressed by its brightness and, of course, Martin’s famous reliability. Five were rigged on the front truss, with a couple on road cases way down the back for the big backlight scene at the end of Act 3. A large procession of choir members with banners walks through the building, spectacularly lit by the MAC Viper XIPs and Aura PXLs.
Philip remarks that the 17 x MAC Aura PXLs were also good because of their zoom, especially since he could not have an overhead rig. Instead, he had two five-metre-high vertical trusses tucked behind the pillars. Each of these trusses housed three MAC Aura PXLS.
“I couldn’t go any higher than five metres because of engineering, and the stage is 1.5 metres high, so I only had about 3 metres worth of truss above the stage,” he added. “The MAC Aura PXLs are good because they’re lightweight, and you can jam them in. I didn’t need any of the sparkle effects or anything like that. I was using them for colour and washing. I had six more on the front truss just for the front wash and spot. When I plotted this, I left two Aura PXLs out on the front truss and two Aura PXLs on the side trusses just as sniper lights, rapidly filling gaps where a performer might be standing. They worked well for that.”
These MAC Aura PXLs were also used to light into the famous Dome of the Royal Exhibition Building: dark blue for night, medium blue for the day, and amber for the glorious full-stage climactic finale.
Each vertical truss held another Martin trooper: five MAC ERA Performance CLD with a couple more on the stage floor for set gobo washes and window backlight.
The Martin family performed their duty over the run of shows right up until the last performance, where the temperature was 38°C, and there was no air conditioning in the building.
Photography Robin Halls
