MANCHESTER, UK — Russian-born violinist Alina Ibragimova performed at the Manchester International Festival (MIF) in collaboration with The Brothers Quay, a filmmaking/animation firm. The event was staged in and around the library of the Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and was supported with lighting by DBN.
The atmospheric promenade performance for 100 people each evening introduced them to several different locations the 600-year-old center of learning, where Ibragimova performed four different solo violin pieces by Berio, Bach, Biber and Bartók.
In the Baronial Hall, the final performance space, a commissioned stop-motion-animation film by The Brothers Quay accompanied Ibragimova’s performance.
Page’s brief during this sequence was to light Ibragimova so she almost became a part of the movie. He also had to light the whole performance area to match the mood and vibe of the work, in the process create a timeless transcendental environment where people could be completely unaware of space and chronology, lost in the emotional intensity, power and simplicity of the music.
Apart from the creative challenges, rigging, flying points and power were in short supply.
Page used nearly 100 Par16s for the project and a range of ETC Source4 lanterns. Lengths of VS Opto LED strip were also rigged around an ancient door suspended within the library, giving it the appearance of floating.
Birdies were hidden all around the spaces to highlight the architecture of the buildings, wherever they could be fitted – on the floor, in corners, on windowsills, bookcases, under tables, and so on. The small dimensions of the fixtures made them well-suited for being ensconced into nooks and crannies. The wiring had to be completely invisible to the audience and great diligence was needed to ensure that the building was not touched or harmed during the installation process.
“The lighting played a vital element in creating the setting and in engaging the audience to become immersed in the intimacy and power of the performance,” said Page. “The show was a combination of being incredibly close to one of the world’s leading violinists for a recital of beautiful and challenging music, accompanied by abstracted, provocative images that interacted with the historic setting to create a truly unique event”.
He added that it was “great fun and truly inspirational” to work with the Brothers Quay as the lighting director for the piece. Taking the lead from their intricate film and the different performance spaces within the library, Page used light sparingly to create shadow and contrast across the face and body of Ibragimova and her violin, as well as picking out specific elements of the architecture, sometimes in reflected light and relief.
The lighting for the main performance areas was controlled from an ETC Smartfade. It obviously had the desired effect, with Ivan Hewett commenting in his show review for The Telegraph, “The various interconnecting spaces were lit in ways to baffle our sense of space.”
To further engineer the atmospherics, Page commissioned 30 paraffin flame pots placed outside the buildings to produce orange flames, casting shadows through the windows of the buildings and guiding the audience to and from the performance spaces.
DBN was also involved with lighting several other projects for the Manchester International Festival.
For more information, please visit www.dbn.co.uk.
Photo by Sebastian Matthes
