Librettist/director Constantine Costi and composer Luke Di Somma took quite a gamble when they set about retelling the story of Siegfried & Roy. The storytelling is a little enhanced, very camp and not necessarily true, but you can’t let reality get in the way of a good show. This epic new opera features larger-than-life characters, powerhouse vocals, live magic and playful humour, and has plenty of tricks up its bedazzled sleeves. Imaginative sex scenes and lashings of Colombian nose powder make this an adults-only show!
Set and prop design is by Pip Runciman, who has successfully transformed Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 1 Theatre into a Las Vegas showroom complete with catwalk, chandeliers and cabaret seating. With Oscar-winning costume designer Tim Chappel, they smothered props and costumes in diamanté that sparkled under the impressive lighting rig.
The show is commissioned, produced, and presented by Lauren Peters, the Sydney Festival and supported by Opera Australia. It may have appeared lavish, but the budget was tight. Lighting designer Damien Cooper worked his own magic, saying they created the show on ‘the smell of an oily rag and much goodwill’, thanks to lighting supplier Chameleon Touring Systems. However, Mantacore the Tiger cost $60,000, but it was an absolute show-stealer.
“We tried to make everything out of things that existed, hire as opposed to buying or building,” commented Cooper. “The show starts at the end of the story when it’s Roy’s 59th birthday party. There’s a little smoke for their entrance, a little sparkle, backlight, and framing so they can pop and reveal the rest of the cast. Then, we return to their childhood very quickly, becoming a daggy, two-dimensional, flat-framed presentation.”
The following scenes include the first time they met leaving Germany, a journey through the nightclubs of Europe, a performance for the Princess of Monaco where the lighting starts to ramp up and finally, the Vegas world of flash and bling. Cooper remembers seeing Seigfried and Roy in Vegas in the late 90s, and they left a lasting impression on him.
Cooper liaised with Adam Mada, the magic consultant, to work out what to hide and what to reveal. Cooper believes that the best magic is where you can see everything rather than trying to hide it with light.
The performance area is a double theatre space combining Wharf 1 and Wharf 2, with a five-metre gap between the two theatres. Cooper bridges the gap with a large, flown circular custom truss. The truss houses a dozen Ayrton Diablos, chosen for their weight, each interspersed with a small mirrorball and one large one suspended in the middle of the circle.
“They worked well for the show,” he added. “Because we had a high stage, the circle truss was at five metres, and the rest of the grid was at six metres, everything was low to the stage.”
Six hung Martin MAC Encore Performance CLD out front of the stage lit the catwalk, as did a selection of ETC Source 4 fixtures. Overall, the show utilises 88 ETC Source4 and Source4 Lustre series 2.
At the rear of the stage are two F34 truss arches ingeniously lit by a centre semi-circle of fourteen Ayrton MagicBlades. Their use builds with the show, starting as fancy truss lighters and ending up full-on to the audience by the time we get to Vegas. The arch recalls the dome on which Siegfried & Roy’s big cats perched during the finale of their show at the Mirage. Above the stage and to the rear are nine Martin MAC Aura PXL for ‘giving high fives and specials’.
At the rear are three MAC Viper XIP, described by Cooper as fantastic, and thirteen GLP X4 bar 20 to backlight the space. Twelve Martin Mac Ones hang above the band at the back, with Cooper saying that he didn’t expect them to be so bright. Two Look Solutions Octojets provided atmosphere.
“The MAC Viper XIPs and the MAC ones were used for their intense white light in the operatic Wagnerian birthday party scene,” added Cooper.
Strings of RGB LED festoon lighting and eight large crystal chandeliers add even more campness. As in a Vegas venue, the bar is a feature in the room, with three large GLP Force 120 fans serving as a backdrop.
“Unfortunately, they were too noisy to turn on,” remarked Cooper. “They look great, but I wanted just to have them slowly spinning.”
The biggest enemy on this show was time. Load-in was on Friday, focusing on Saturday morning and a preview on Sunday. The show ran off an ETC EOS that Jasmine Rizk programmed.
“I’ve never considered the ETC EOS the best effects console, but it was good for this,” said Cooper. “We got a whole range of effects in very quickly.”
Cooper clearly had fun lighting Seigfried and Roy, commenting that it’s rare that you get the opportunity to use an orange front light to take the audience to the land of fake tan.
This article originally appeared in the February issue of Lighting & Sound International magazine.
