MIAMI-Lava Studio, best known for its work in advertising, television and feature films, has collaborated with director/designer team Renaud Doucet and André Barbe on Florida Grand Opera's production of The Barber of Seville to create animated sets for its Feb. 20-March 6 run in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Lava Studio senior art director David Woodward said the project is the studio's first venture into long-form, theatrical animation. The animations, which were created over a four-month period, are projected on a 22-foot-high by 40-foot-wide screen and are cued live to keep pace with the live musical performance.
"We were encouraged to have fun and take risks, and in our collaboration with André and Renaud, we found inspiration in everything from Alfred Hitchcock to Monty Python and Bugs Bunny," said president and design director Robert Kirkpatrick. "We wanted to create animation that would complement the live performances and would feel more like stagecraft than computer graphics."
The animated sets are based on black-and-white silhouette drawings by Barbe, who is also costume and set designer. The layers of animation add color, texture and perspective to the minimalistic sets, with visuals including storms, portraits that come to life and a cascading shower of musical notes.
"We're doing theatre, and our job is to put a frame around a work of art; Barber is a comedy and we wanted to do something funny and light, but we also needed it to be subtle and elegant," said Barbe. "I know it will come as a shock, because in the world of opera, animation is almost never used."
"Miami is a great place for contemporary art, and you don't get more contemporary than computer animation," said Doucet, stage director and choreographer. "We are trying to be faithful to the composer while at the same time reaching a 21st-century audience."
The Barber of Seville runs Feb. 20-28 at the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. The show runs March 4 and 6 at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.
For more info about Lava Studio, please visit www.lava-studio.com .
For more info about the Florida Grand Opera, please visit www.fgo.org .
