How I Did That: Lighting L'Amour De Loin

I joined the project a little late. Before I was involved, there were a couple of lengthy workshops in Canada that director Robert Lepage and his production company, Ex Machina, had put together. In those workshops, he and set designer Michael Curry came up with a beautiful LED set as well as many other ideas for the production. L’Amour de Loin was a co-production between Ex Machina and The Met. Peter Gelb, the general manager at The Met, was very supportive of Robert collaborating with me on this production. I had recently had an excellent experience with Rigoletto at The Met, and I also think Peter thought that this LED set was really up my alley, and involving a lighting designer from New York would make for a smooth transfer to The Met.

I then attended a 10-day workshop for the production in early 2015. This workshop was in a warehouse outside of Montreal, and the entire set, which I was just crazy about, was set up for the first time. We had a group of acrobats and actor stand-ins, and we basically put together a rough sketch of the show in that workshop, with a final run-through that everyone from both producing organizations attended. 

The automations department from The Met was there and laid in all the automation cues. I used a very small plot of about 17 LED PARs, six overhead Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 spots, a few ETC Source Four elliposidals for specials, and a single front followspot, also a Source Four with an iris, to lay in the cues and basic color shifts of the lighting for the show. We all got a lot done in that warehouse.

In July 2015, we loaded the set into the Quebec City opera house for a month and completely rehearsed the show on the set in the theatre. I had the unique experience, for me anyway, of lighting rehearsals from the first day it started. I asked Robert what he wanted me to do during this time, and he said, “Whatever you want.” So I took the houselights to a low glow and started lighting the show based on the sketch I had made in the warehouse a few months earlier. The plot was pretty basic. I had a few ellipsoidals—21 Elation Professional RGB LED PARs—as side light across the top of the LED set strands, 13 VL3500 spots hung overhead, two front followspots, and two back followspots.

Basically, I tried to stay out of the way of the LED set strands with the lighting. I didn’t want to light the deck under the strands, so most of the light came from the LED PARs that were a low and high direct side light. They skimmed right across the top of the strands and made a plane of LED light to wash the large bridge contraption that spun through the space as well as the principals riding it. I liked the LED PARs because the quality of the light on the bridge matched the set LEDs, and the color shifts could be very fluid and saturated.

If I had a color idea, I would go back and talk to video designer Lionel Arnould about where I was headed or ask where he was headed. We kind of influenced color back and forth for my lighting and his video content. Sometimes they directly contrasted, and sometimes they moved in harmony, and often they did both within a single long scene. Between the 10-day workshop and the month of rehearsal tech, we had a lot of time to dial in the design of the lighting and video content. I also kept in mind the plot for The Met, and I knew there were details I could add in later when I had a larger rig and more support.

The move to The Met went smoothly. We had four days to pre-tech the show on stage as every show does, and we made it through in three. About 80% of the cueing and color work was what I had figured out in the Montreal warehouse workshop and was still building off of. To The Met rep plot, we added 21 ETC Desire D60s, and we also used two PRG Bad Boys overhead with a GroundControl Followspot System. It was a test for The Met to use these and get the followspot operators off the overhead bridges down onto the deck. I was a little worried that they wouldn’t be used to operating them, and they wouldn’t be precise. After about the first seven minutes of the day, they controlled them beautifully, and the units worked really well. I could make fluid color shifts, control the intensity, and add template effects here and there—a very effective test.

We also had three Lycian 1295ELTs with 3kw Xenon lamps as front followspots and used a good chunk of The Met rep movers, including 17 VL3500 Spots, five VL4000 Spots, and eight Martin by Harman MAC Viper washes overhead, and six VL4000 Spots front-of-house. We also used a few ellipsoidals here and there for specials and for bows. The lighting was very similar to Quebec City: side LED PARs for the rotating bridge and performers, a few specials here and there with the overhead movers, and tight front and back followspots on the three principals. It was a pretty small plot that mostly stayed out of the way of, and complemented, the LED set. 

A lot of time was spent wrangling the pit music stand lights and the 60 LED music stand lights for The Met chorus that sat under that LED set. That all took quite a bit of careful political effort. During the final dress, Peter Gelb sat behind me with a note here and there. We have similar tastes in lighting, and he was a great second eye at looking at details. He has been kind enough to invite me back to design a new opera based on the book Marnie, which goes to the English National Opera first and is directed by Michael Mayer, and then the Rigoletto team, also led by Mayer, is putting together a new La Traviata for 2018 and also another Verdi repertory piece to be announced for 2019/2020. 

I love working there. The theatre and lobby are just so beautiful, and the people who work there are amazing. There is an excellent and helpful lighting staff at The Met, all familiar faces to me: John Froelich, resident lighting designer, Aaron Sporer, associate staff lighting designer, and Keri Thibodeau and Justin Burke, assistant staff lighting designers.