shadow plays: how lighting designers bring an opera to vivid life.

\"Strun del Thorne virterreben death nakey.
Therefore, command the final chorus in death Zauberflote, praising the power of light over the darkness.
In the opera house, those who really control the power of light and darkness are often the least --
Notice the members of the art team.
These are lighting designers.
What they did not only made it possible for us to watch opera, but also affected our perception.
Dialogue with four top lighting designers in Canada-
Alan Brodie, Calgary
Harry freena and Kevin Fraser and Michael Whitfield, based in Stamford, Ontario-
Reveals the marked visual unity of the role of lights in opera.
\"When describing the role of lighting, the four words most often use\" support \".
Lighting constantly supports work in reflecting the nature of music and stage activities.
Lighting designers have a variety of ways to describe their work.
Brodie compares his character to a movie editor, because the editor is essential to determine the focus of the action and how the audience sees the action.
Fraser believes that lighting is the glue that combines all the parts of the puzzle.
Whitfield regards lighting as \"drawing with light\" to create an environment suitable for that action.
Frehner sees the lighting designer as a \"presenter who helps document performers to show their art to the audience.
\"Lighting design is the latest independent discipline in the art of drama.
In 1545, when a book by Sebastian othelio first discussed stage lighting technology, lighting design was considered part of the set design by the beginning of the 20 th century.
Nevertheless, many of the technologies we consider modern, such as spotlights or color filters, have developed in the era of candles, oil lamps and gas lamps.
In 1881, Iolanthe of Gilbert and Sullivan opened SavoyTheatre, the first public building entirely powered by electricity, not to mention the theater.
The work of the Swiss designer Adolfo Appia triggered a revolution in lighting thinking (1862-1928)
British designer Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966).
These two senses lighting should have a greater effect than simply illuminating the setting and recreating natural light on the stage.
On the contrary, both think that lighting should create mood and atmosphere.
Appia was especially impressed by Wagner\'s ideal for gesanton strovik.
Total number of works of art)
Only when the lighting, in response to the case of history, can be achieved
Change Music, change scenery.
When Bayreuth reopened in 1951, Parsifal and der Ring dens Nibelungen, revolutionary works of Wieland Wagner, put Appia\'s theory into practice.
The impact of new opportunity technologies on new ideas for lighting has enabled people who have been trained by set designers or stage technicians to work on lighting designs individually, starting at 1930 and 40.
For Brodi, Fraser, freina and Whitfield, the ideal for opera production is still \"gesanton\", in which all production elements contribute to the opera
Today, only new works can realize this ideal.
The director\'s concept of opera should include stage, design and lighting, all of which need to be discussed together from the beginning.
Not surprisingly, when asked about their most satisfying experience in the lighting opera, all four of them chose their new work, all of which were single-in-one ---
Canadian opera companies \'stristan\' and Isolde (1987)
Lucia dirham Moore, Vancouver Opera House (2000)
Brodie, Opera Studio Peree (2000)
Film world premiere of Fraser and Calgary Opera House2003)forFrehner.
The first thing four people do when accepting new light allocations is listen to opera recordings if they exist.
Unlike Theater, where the text does not clearly state what approach the director may take, the music in the opera implies drama, and as Whitfield says, the director \"ignores the danger \".
\"The theme includes not only information about weather effects or time of year, but more importantly, mood, atmosphere and change or conflict between the two.
The style of music also determines the style of the designer.
As Brodie points out, the big moves that may come out of Verdi or Wagner do not apply to multverdi or Purcell.
Unlike drama, the tone of the work may not be obvious until the actor reads for the first time
The visual information of opera music is so rich that all four designers say that they can draw detailed temporary lighting plots based on what they hear.
In fact, the rehearsal time allocated to most opera productions is very short, which makes this gift necessary.
These four designers combine naturalism and formalism in their work, using the techniques that are most understandable in terms of layering.
The first layer reproduces the natural effects of internal or external light over time on the stage.
Both Frehner and whitfield point out the Letter Scene of Yevgeny Onegin and the vigil activity of MadamaButterfly as examples of fine detail music descriptions that change light.
The second and most artistic challenging level reflects the emotional nature of the action and the psychological state of the character when he crosses various emotions.
To do this, you may need to texture and color the light, or distort the relationship between the light and the shadow.
A good example is the banquet scene in Macbeth, where emacbeth\'s abnormal perception of Banko\'s ghost should change the normal state around him.
The third floor of the lighting design focuses on the singer or singer group on the stage, emphasizing their interactions and defining their spatial relationships.
It can be as simple as training to follow
The position on the main singers can highlight them, but they can also become more complex if a scene involves interactions such as private and public discourse.
Fraser has been working at the Opera House in Toronto since 1988, and an additional task is to design methods that use modern lamps to rebuild these layers, because they may seem like this on candlelight days.
The temporary lighting plot of the lighting designer is an aid to the rehearsal process, the set is in place and negotiated with the stage director, who has the final say.
The technical aspects of this work include a separate focus of 250 to 400 lighting instruments (
Because they are called by professionals.
, Determine the use of color blends, textures and projections, and the time and programming of each lighting change during the opera process-
In fact, a parallel opera soundtrack composed of light was created.
A hint or signal of a light change is written into the score and \"called\" by the stage manager during the performance, as well as the actor\'s feeling.
Technological advances and the growing desire to present opera as a play have increased the number of cues in the 1970 and 1980 s from an average of 20 to 30 to about 100 today.
The reality of the North American opera scene is that most of the works are not new and usually combine different sources of presentation and different sources of clothing.
In this case, the lighting design becomes more important and more limited.
It becomes the director\'s main means of visual interpretation of the opera, but the designer must also create harmony between the scenery and the clothing, otherwise these scenery and clothing may not exist.
The four designers enjoyed the freedom to design for the opera.
The work is larger in scale, and stories and emotions are influenced by music that has distinguished them from natural theaters, allowing designers to use a wider palette and paint than traditional theaters.
There may be changes in settings and costumes during the performance, but only the lights will react to the music over time --to-
The sensitivity of the moment to enhance what happens on the stage.
When you watch the opera next time, please take a moment for the silent instrument that is playing and the designer who is really lighting the music.