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Visual Delight - Stage Technologies & The Tempest
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In a highly successful, if not brief, run at the Royal Opera House, The Tempest played out the final performance of a two week run on Saturday. Commissioned by the Royal Opera House in a co-production with Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen and Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg, The Tempest has been hailed by critics as an operatic masterpiece.
Behind the scenes, this was Tom Cairns directorial debut at the Royal Opera House. Music was by Thomas Adès, a young British composer perhaps best known for the success of his chamber opera ‘Powder her Face’, with poet and playwright Meredith Oakes, also contributing to the libretto; hardly surprising therefore that this production was such a triumph.
A visual feast, The Tempest provides audiences with some breath taking moments. The Royal Opera House approached engineering specialists Stage Technologies to assist in creating this powerful visual delight by providing automation for the production. The centrepiece of the set is one of Prospero's books - that rotates, opens and shuts to provide a constantly changing perspective and set of levels for the protagonists. The hydraulic mechanism to create this effect was designed by consultant and designer Mike Barnett and built by Delstar. Stage Technologies’ control equipment, (including the portable Nomad control console and Maxis control rack) was used to drive the effect. The inventiveness continues throughout the Opera, with director and co-designer Tom Cairns and set designer Motitz Junge creating one of the most breathtaking visual moments of the evening, when Ferdinand is washed up on the shore and waves appear to be breaking and foaming out of the book itself.
The Tempest is due to start its tour next month; a must see production if you missed it at the Royal Opera House this time round its almost worth a trip to Europe in itself.
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