MASADA, Israel – The Israeli Opera staged a production of Verdi's Nabucco in an open-air, purpose-built arena at Masada Mountain near the Dead Sea. The lighting rig included more than 100 Robe moving light fixtures, some of them customized for the production. The six-day, sold-out event drew 6,500 opera fans nightly to the historic setting, near the mountaintop fortress where hundreds of occupants, under a long siege by ancient Roman forces, took their own lives. U.K.-based HSL provided lighting gear, working with technical provider Stage Design, which coordinated the technical infrastructure and on-site build.
LD Avi Yona Bueno, a.k.a. "Bambi," used 84 ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 20 ColorBeam 2500E ATs and 24 REDWash 3â—Â192s along with other HSL-supplied gear. Robe made custom reflectors and special framing gobos for its ColorSpot 2500E AT fixtures to meet specifications for an intense, tight beam to isolate different areas onstage during the production.
Eyal Lavee of Stage Design coordinated much of the site build and the technical infrastructure required for the production.
To allow clear sight lines for an unimpeded view of the mountain, the lighting positions were arranged to be from the sides and front, with a few at floor level. Lavee and Bambi had been in discussions about the lighting, and both visited Robe MD Josef Valchar at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt to discuss the production's special needs.
"They could not have been more helpful," said Bambi. "I was very impressed that a manufacturer can be this flexible and genuinely enthusiastic, and I am always happy to work with Robe and their products."
The lighting played a key role in coloring and adding visual texture to Nitzan Rafaeeli's minimal stage set. The ColorSpots were hung all over the two 19-meter-high, 24-meter-wide side gantries and also right across the FOH gantry. The side towers were 52 meters apart and the FOH gantry was 50 meters from the stage.
The custom-built reflectors – now available as an accessory from Robe – more than doubles the light output when the custom "shutter" gobos are in the unit and narrow the beam path. Bambi used the shutters to pin-point groups of performers and areas of the stage – sometimes subtly illuminating sections of the action, at other times creating a patchwork of bold colors across the stage.
The 20 ColorBeam 2500E ATs used for the production were the units off Robe's production line after that model fixture made its debut at ProLight + Sound. Building on other beam-type fixtures in the Robe range, that fixture is particularly well suited to uses requiring a bright, concentrated and tight beam. For Nabucco, Bambi used these beneath the stage, blasting upwards through the grilled sections.
The REDWash 3â—Â192s, meanwhile, were rigged around the sides and front of stage, just offset from it, on custom-fabricated brackets. These were used to sweep the floor with saturated streaks of light, with their homogenized lightsources producing a quality of light that both contrasted with and complemented the MSR bulbs used with the ColorSpots.
Although the staging of Nabucco might not have taken as long as the construction of the Roman rampart leading up to the mountain fortress during the time of the ancient siege, it had to overcome a number of obstacles – including the site's remote location and harsh desert climate – to succeed.
"There were many challenges, but that is all part of the uniqueness of dealing with site specific events," noted HSL's Mike Oates.
HSL's Ian Stevens also noted that the Robe gear stood up well to the wind-blown sand, dust and 116° F. temperatures. "The Robes needed minimal maintenance and far less attention than any other pieced of kit," he said.
HSL sea freighted all the gear to the site and provided other crew members, including Charlotte Stevens, Gabriel Cross and Rob "Starkers" Starksfield.
Along with the Robe fixtures, the production used 300 PAR cans, more than 200 ETC Source Fours, with a mix of 10, 36 and 50 degree lenses, and 20 strings of ACLs positioned behind the numerous stage entrances and exits.
Upstage right, at the top of the gantry, were three Hungaroflash T-Light Pro mega strobes. They had their moment when the show's main protagonist Nabucco is struck down by God. For additional strobe effects, 24 Atomic 3000 Colors were dotted around the rig.
At FOH were six Robert Juliat Cyrano followspots, four of them rigged on newly fabricated truss mount seats to maximize all possible height.
For atmospheric enhancements, HSL supplied 12 of their Martin K1 smoke machines.
The control setup included four of HSL's proprietary 72 way 'hot' power racks and two 24 way versions, together with eight Avo 48-way and two 24-way ART 2K dimmer racks. A City Theatrical wireless DMX system was installed to feed data to 60 xenon searchlights located in the boulder-strewn wilderness area between the back of the stage and the foot of the mountain.
All lighting was controlled through a Compulite Vector Red console, with another for backup. The programming was undertaken by Alon Cohen and David "Vinnie" Vinnik, who spent a week prior to the show in the Opera's WYSIWYG studio, getting the basic building blocks into the desk before coming on site, where time was extremely tight.
HSL worked closely with two designated local lighting techs from crewing company Betty Bam, and in particular Saffril "Saffi" Dagan, who also came to HSL's Blackburn, U.K. headquarters to work on the prep and loading of the containers – staying a little longer than expected, due to the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull Volcano closing down European airspace for six days.
Now the site is built, the Opera is planning to return next year for another season.
"Working with HSL has been fantastic in every way," said Eyal Lavee. "They are a truly professional company with the best attitude and excellent equipment. Conditions on site were gruelling and thoroughly testing for people and equipment, and even through the most challenging moments, everyone kept smiling and getting on with it."
For more information, please visit www.hslgroup.com and www.robe.cz.
