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INDUSTRY NEWS Copyright Lighting &Sound America November 2019 complete issue: http://plasa.me/mbzbv The Lady in Red: Robert Wilson Takes On Turandot Two very different, but equally compelling, productions of he says, “I try to find a key in each work that helps me get Giacomo Puccini’s last, unfinished opera, Turandot were through the piece, something simple where I can see the recently performed: a revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s spectacu - whole in a moment. For Turandot , I thought about her, lar 1987 staging at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (see Turandot, as a red line that goes from beginning to the end; photos in last month’s LSA ) and Robert Wilson’s new Teatro a woman who is totally alone, who is first seen high on a Real Madrid, Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand balcony alone. In the end, she is seen downstage near the Opera, and Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre of audience, alone, with the chorus far offstage, away from her Vilnius coproduction at the Four Seasons Centre for the and in the shadows. Turandot is a fairy tale set in ancient Performing Arts in Toronto. China and rooted in Persian mythology. It is another world, As is his wont, Wilson was in charge of three of the pro - not seen before.” r e p duction’s main concepts: direction, set design, and lighting in Wilson’s work is a collaboration developed in workshops o o C collaboration with co-director Nicola Panzer, co-set designer at the Watermill Center, an international center of the arts l e a h c Stephanie Engeln, and co-lighting designer John Torres. and humanities founded by him in 1992. The process i M : s When asked how he arrived at his unique, yet instantly begins with table discussions, sketches, and drawings that o t o h recognizable, non-interpretive theatrical vision for Turandot , he creates with his production team. He then begins to P 16 • November 2019 • Lighting &Sound America stage the work with students at the center and creates the on some of which small, round practical lights are placed. blocking and movements for the choreography. He sketches Behind the “forest,” the “sky” is a menacing color of red. the work at this juncture and records all his notes and Much of the set was built in Spain at the Teatro Real movements in the score. A rehearsal period follows, with the Madrid’s scenic workshop but assembled and added to in singers in a rehearsal venue with the sketches of the set, the Canadian Opera Company’s shop. The production was lighting, costumes, and makeup. also rigged in-house by the COC. The stunning blood-red - The entire process is a collaborative effort. “In my work, show curtain, with a black outline of a circle, in the center, every element is equally important, whether it’s a gesture, was painted by Rinaldo Rinaldi and Maria Grazia Cervetti, of light, makeup, movement of the stage, etc. This is what Modena, Italy. Bertolt Brecht referred to as epic theatre,” he adds. The spare “icy” set and lighting match Turandot’s cruel, Wilson’s Turandot set is minimalist, but he and Torres sadistic personality, as she gives orders, with apparent bring it to life with extraordinarily color-rich and picturesque enjoyment, for her many suitors to be executed after they “art installations” of light. “Most opera productions are too fail to solve the three riddles that she proffers them. In her busy for my taste,” Wilson says. “I usually have to close my dramatic first appearance, she is slowly propelled into view eyes to hear better. In this production, hopefully with my from the stage-left wings atop a platform that “floats” more eyes open and the stage being concentrated, what I can than 16' above the stage; she is clad in a brilliant red dress see helps me to hear better than when my eyes are closed. and sports a massive headdress. Her expressionless white - I can see the landscape of Texas in all my work. I grew up face, like that of all the principals, is a signature Wilsonian with that space.” homage to commedia dell’arte that he incorporates into all Engeln designs sets for opera and theatre internationally his productions, along with his slow-motion repetition of and has also been Wilson’s artistic collaborator for the last pronounced gestures. Although his productions start out 25 years. The fact that her interests lie in “purity of form being “free and improvised,” he says, “they end up as highly down to the smallest detail” in her designs meshes perfectly formal and mechanical.” with Wilson’s concepts. Her Turandot is a striking co-design Wilson and Torres are both known for spectacular color that “combines the massive with the minimal.” There are 12 schemes and eye-searing, painterly tableaux. Here, white “monumental” black moving panels in the set, built as “tubes” of light are a constant, providing frames for each metallic frames and covered with lightproof fabric. Some scene. When Turandot’s father, the emperor, descends from panels are motorized under computer control and move the flies to rebuke his daughter for refusing to accept Calaf, along a track in different configurations and at various the hero (who has successfully answered her three riddles), speeds, while others are moved by stagehands and run in as her husband, he does so while sitting on a swing-like floor guides. An interpretation of a forest-like garden is cre - contraption suspended by two ropes. He is lit by a Vari-Lite ated by applications of black felt-like material onto a net-like VL3500 Spot and framed by two vertical lines of white light, curtain that create the appearance of entwined branches, one rising on each side of the stage. www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • November 2019 • 17 Wilson and Torres’ three overhead electrics light the Martin by Harman MAC Encore CLDs, and eight VL3500 upstage cyc with 16 Strand Iris cycs, 11 LDDE cool white Spots. Followspots include three Robert Juliat Aramis units fluorescent units (with four custom colors), and 104 PAR 64 and a Lycian 1200 XLT. Control is via an ETC Eos Ti. narrows for horizontal flown electric effects. The production This striking-looking Turandot confirms the view of Janice features two ground-row concepts: 14 Selecon Auroras and Price, president and CEO of the Banff Centre for Arts and a further 11 LDDEs in four custom colors: blue, gray, violet, Creativity, that “experiencing a Robert Wilson production is red. like going to a whole new galaxy.” —Julie Rekai Overhead are 60 PAR 64s with Wybron CXI scrollers, 16 18 • November 2019 • Lighting &Sound America.

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