An Andrea Bocelli tour is like no other. His tours last two years, and quite often, his ‘tour’ of a country involves just one show in one city, making for impressive tour wrangling and logistics. Such was the case when he visited Australia in April to perform at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Bocelli is accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra, a 60-person choir, and a 20-person touring crew – a group of consummate professionals who well-oil the machine. The team is charming and hospitable and clearly knows what they are doing!
“It is a lot of work, especially now because, from February onwards, we have been to South America, Asia, and Australia, going back home for a couple of days, and then we go to South Africa, followed by a UK tour,” commented Massimo Nebuloni, Tour Manager. “It means that we ran through five continents in two and a half months. It’s not like a regular tour; we must be here for three days to set up, and every show is unique.”
Nebuloni adds that they have different promoters everywhere they go, and he candidly admits to being quite picky about the equipment they use, requiring everything to be high-quality. It’s a very static show, so everything about video, sound, and lighting has to be high-level. Otherwise, it’s a mess.
“Everything that we have in our rider, everything that we are supposed to have, 80% of the time has to be changed, has to be adapted, always considering that we need to keep the standard very high,” Nebuloni added. “However, the rider didn’t change much in Australia.”
The night after the Sydney show, Bocelli was due to perform in Taipei, which conjured some production magic. A team were already there setting up the show, and once the Sydney show began at 8.15pm, Nebuloni raced to the airport to ensure he got to Taipei the following day. Andrea Bocelli departed after the show on a private jet.
Nebuloni states that coordinating all the different departments is the most challenging aspect of his job. Every time they go somewhere, one department suffers more than others because maybe you go somewhere where everything is perfect regarding sound but crazy regarding video.
“We were last in Macau and, as quite often happens in some Asian countries, you have equipment that doesn’t talk to what you normally do,” he said. “Then, travel-wise, after Covid, they have reduced a lot of flights, and nowadays, you have to travel in advance, especially with our way of making concerts. Sometimes, we have some last-minute changes in our routing, so when everything is ready to go from, let’s say, Macau to Taipei, and a Sydney show jumps in, it’s not that easy to manage everything. I already have people flying to South Africa to prep there; the rest of the group will arrive a couple of days later, but it’s cool, and we don’t panic.”
Lighting
Lighting designer Aldo Visentin has worked with Bocelli for 19 years, so he’s coming up to nearly 500 shows with him. Due to the way Bocelli tours, he says the lights, rented locally, are always different. He’ll note what he prefers but is usually happy with an equivalent alternative.
“It depends on what they’ve got on the shelf or whether they have enough quantity,” he said. “That means I dedicate a lot of time to cloning my show, rebuilding and reprogramming everything every single show.”
While most of the shows have some common denominators, what is again different on Bocelli shows is the presence of a “static” artist onstage. The show focuses on the vocal purity and interpretation performance.
“Because of this, all of the visual part of the show assumes a predominant role in the enhancement of the feelings/emotions coming from singing music; a role which is more subliminal than pure appearance only,” Visentin said. “Over the years, the number of lights on the show grew by studying, looking around, doing experiments, and watching the audience’s reactions. There are no wow effects (except for the finale), strobe effects, or chasing. It’s all about the interpretation of a feeling.”
Visentin aims to touch the audience through the lights, something he probably would never have been able to do with a different artist. He dresses the show in a mood appropriate for the music and the artist.
“I started with something straightforward, super simple,” he added. “And I play more on the tiny things, on the peculiar changing of the light, the intensity of the colour and develop across the years.”
The lights move slowly during the performance, with Visentin saying they follow the emotional curve. It’s more about working on the show’s spirit than its physical part.
The lighting design is simple, with three fixture types: wash, spot, and beam. In Sydney, PRG supplied the lighting, which consisted of 16 x Martin MAC Quantum Wash, 64 x Ayrton Perseo Profile, 24 x Claypaky Scenius Unico, 24 x Chauvet Strike Array 4, 18 x Strike Array 2, and six Ayrton Domino LT.
“Again, I started with a simple approach,” remarked Visentin. “I only use the beams for a few moments on the show. So most of the work is between the wash and the spots, all LED engines.”
The trussing features eight fingers that fan out towards downstage. The central four fingers hold Perseo and Scenius Unico, while the outside trusses hold Perseo and MAC Quantum Wash. The lighting is very high to Visentin’s preference, as he says it gives the stage breadth.
The stage floor has 14 x GLP impression X4 Bar 20 and four Chroma-Q Color Force II 48 bars. The Chauvet Strike Array 4 are located at the end of each truss finger and out to the sides of the stage under the iMag. Each truss finger also holds a couple of Chauvet Strike Array 2.
“The Strike Arrays are mainly to light up the audience in their moments: during the applause, the final greeting and, very often, for the standing ovation,” added Visentin. “It is still impressive to me how you can ‘control’ the duration or affect the intensity of an applause through the blinders.”
The Domino LT fixtures are positioned out front, three on each FOH tower to act as followspots. Since 2022, Visentin has incorporated remote control systems for followspots and in Sydney, PRG provided three of its GroundControl Followspot Systems.
Visentin runs an MA Lighting grandMA3, in MA3 mode, and he admits that he hasn’t tackled the Recipes feature as yet.
“Jumping from one show to another, normally, I would replace the fixtures by having my base of presets, especially colour and positions,” he said. “After that, the work is to verify the return of all preset positions, sometimes offsetting the PT, depending on the fixture type and/or fixtures’ hanging orientation. Over the years, I built a Data Pool library based on each show I’ve done. All my colour palettes relevant to each fixture type encountered are saved on these. Those Data Pools are my “supplier” when I need to update the colour palette when the show changes. I’m still using this work method, which is probably not the quickest. But it works!”
Aesthetically, Visentin describes the lighting as organic with the video; together, they decide which picture represents that sound. The two departments work together very closely to achieve this consistently.
“It’s not complicated,” Visentin adds. “Again, this show is super easy. The processing required from the console is nothing compared with other big shows. Show playback is more of a question of perfect timing. In my opinion, time is the key that you must take care of when you represent sound or music through lights in any show. A perfect light look that arrives at the wrong time doesn’t work for the brain. I’d rather skip a cue than fire it at the wrong moment.”
Haze is used with Visentin choosing MDG Atmosphere APS2, so as not to damage the orchestra instruments. At outdoor shows, you are always at the mercy of air currents or wind that can help maintain the proper density of haze or sweep it away. Fortunately, Sydney was generous in this sense and contributed to creating the right environment for the lights, as rarely happens.
Visentin notes that the Sydney audience was particularly lively and involved. The place, its history, and the exceptional atmosphere made the show unique to his eyes, even though he is accustomed to seeing so many over the past few years.
Video
Emigliano Napoli, Video Director, was wrangling seven screens: two iMags and five vertical screens onstage. The onstage screens are essentially for content, although every screen is available for content, iMag, or GFX.
“Because venues we tour are huge, the iMags are dedicated exclusively to Bocelli while performing solo or with guests, like soprano, instrumental performers, or pop guests,” elaborated Napoli. “Experience says that the audience likes to see him during the performance; this leads to the use of live cameras for the large iMags.”
Napoli’s vision in directing centres on the mixing of Bocelli’s large shot and the close-up capture of the special moments where Bocelli may smile or hold hands with the soprano or certain facial expressions, or hugs with a guest or his son, Matteo.
“While mixing, I like the idea of using all the live ingredients available to write a story, to tell about all the different feelings and emotions which only Bocelli’s live performance can give to his audience,” commented Napoli.
Napoli mixes the images with GFX and content to create what he describes as a movie setting. The background is the stage with the orchestra, Bocelli, and the guests inside the movie, inside that scenery.
The screen at the back is a Roe Visual Vanish ST (Vanish Solid Touring) Series, specifically designed for outdoor live events. It divides into five parts, extends 26 metres, and reaches a height of 16 metres. It is high-definition but runs at low brightness so as not to interfere with the show’s atmosphere.
“I always work to avoid strong contrast in brightness between shots to avoid distracting the audience’s attention”, added Napoli. “Our aim is not to constantly keep the audience focused on the screen.”
The concept involves using content on the centre screens with the interaction of live images from cameras. The approach is typically theatrical. The aim is not to distract the audience’s attention but to create and leave a continuously changing background that takes the artist and the orchestra to every place and visually describes each song and its feeling.
Five Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras with Fujinon lenses are in front of the house. There are two 99 x 8.4 lenses, two UA 107 x 8.4 lenses and an XT 17 x 4.5 lens. Three Panasonic AW-UE150 4K PTZ robo cameras are discreetly located onstage.
Napoli uses a Grass Valley GV K-Frame XP Switcher for 4K UHD/HD video processing. Big Picture provided all the video equipment and crew.
Napoli remarks that his main challenge in this job is the people he works with, whilst equipment is rarely a problem.
“As you know, every show takes place in a different city in a different country, so with a different work team every time,” he said. “The cameramen are local professionals whom I have to train in a few hours about my vision of live cut and the proper shooting I need. In most cases, the shooting required differs significantly from what locals are used to, which is the most common technique for TV, cinema or broadcasting.
“I like to create the right alchemy between myself and my staff while running the show. It works by keeping a calm and comfortable environment and giving the correct directions on focus. The shooting destinations are various portrait screen sizes. The camerapersons must be very careful to take the right shots dedicated to the type of portrait involved, which is not the normal 16/9 ratio. This happens in real-time during the concert, so communication with FOH is super important. For this reason, shows are always different for the benefit of the returning audience and fans.”
Luca Scota looks after video content and calls the show. The content is created in Unreal Engine, and Scota explains that the work is the most valuable, as he needs to add props for different types of songs. Sometimes, Scota uses other software, such as Adobe After Effects.
“We did a big show in London’s Hyde Park and worked with 15K resolution for each file,” he added. “It’s a vast work. We worked for two months to adapt all the content for the 86-metre-long screen. It’s excellent work but heavy work because many machines are involved. We have a render farm in Italy that we work with.”
Currently, Scota uses a Barco E2 presentation system with Brompton processing, although he is switching to a Barco E8, as it works with the highest resolution. The media server is Dataton WatchOut.
Timecode is only used for one song, where Bocelli sings a duet with Pavarotti. The conductor conducts all the other songs, and there’s no way to match the timecode, so everything is done live.
Scota’s work scope extends beyond Bocelli’s concerts; he is on call for video clips, interviews, and anything involving a camera.
The team reports that they really enjoyed the Sydney show. Stadiums have difficulties, but it is always a moment of pride when they end the show with a standing ovation from the first to the last seat. It means that they, as a team, have done a fine job and can move on to the next one.
Show Photos: Luca Rossetti
This article first appeared in the May edition of Lighting & Sound International magazine.
