SYCAMORE, IL – Operatic pop vocal group, Il Divo, is currently on a three-month US leg on their ‘Wicked Game’ world tour. UK-based LD Matt Pitman is using 24 Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes postioned below the orchestra risers onstage, to provide a different style of rear lighting behind the group. Upstaging is providing the lighting.
More details from Robe (http://www.robe.cz):
SYCAMORE, IL – Operatic pop vocal group, Il Divo, is currently on a three-month US leg on their ‘Wicked Game’ world tour, with lighting designed by UK-based Matt Pitman, whose approach complements artistic director Brian Burke’s visual concept for the band.
One of the features of Pitman’s lighting is a special effect created with 24 Robe ROBIN 600 LEDWashes ensconced below the orchestra risers onstage.
The fixtures, along with trucking, video and other equipment for the tour, are provided by Upstaging of Sycamore, IL.
With a large video screen dominating the visual horizon behind the orchestra risers, Pitman wanted to find a way of creating a different style of rear lighting behind Il Divo during the show to maintain the depth and integrity of the stage architecture. This is where the LEDWash 600s come in, producing a new under stage ‘o-zone’ of rich light.
Pitman had previously used LEDWash 600s on a couple of occasions, and was impressed with them as standard wash lights, but had not considered using them in this specific context.
Before the main ‘Wicked Game’ tour started – in the UK where lighting was supplied by rental company HSL – he conducted shoot-outs to find the optimum light source for the effect he had in mind. At this stage, it became “Obvious that no other light was right for the job.”
He likes the color palette with the LEDWash 600s, together with the full range of fine pastels, and thinks the whites are fantastic. He also appreciates the fixture’s intensity and speed.
Using the 15-60 degree zoom at its widest has also given him the opportunity to discover an interesting quirk, whereby you can point them directly at the audience and pump out really high intensities which have an immersive, resonating effect – just because the optical path for the lightsource is so wide.
This is what he’s nick-named his ‘o-zone’ effect.
Pitman operates the lighting using a full-sized grandMA console.
The North American leg of the tour continues until the end of August playing everything from 20,000 capacity ice hockey arenas to small-to-medium sized town theatres, allowing the flexibility and adaptability of the design to flourish.
