Seebühne uses Christie projectors for the lake scenery of 'Carmen’

For the mapping used in the representation of Carmen, four Boxer 4K30 and two Christie HD20K-J Roadsters were installed on the Seebühne floating stage. These were in charge of projecting the images on the 64 cards that served as screens for this visual spectacle.

The iconic floating stage of Seebühne, installed in the middle of the waters of Lake Constance, in the Austrian town of Bregenz, is the star of the festival that is held there every year, during the months of July and August (Bregenz Festival).

since 1946, the 'Opera on the Lake' attracts thousands of fans of this musical and scenic genre to Bregenz every summer. With a capacity of almost 7.000 Locations, the Seebühne is the largest lake theatre in the world.
With its amazing scenographies and its innovative use of the most cutting-edge technologies, the avant-garde opera productions of the Bregenz Festival have given fame to this cultural event.

On the occasion of the premiere of the work Carmen by Georges Bizet, scheduled for the season 2017-2018, the producers embarked on an impressive mapping in which four Boxer 4K30 and two Roadster HD20K-J of Christie to project, with sharpness and precision, images about the 62 cards that were arranged on stage. Representation, a production by Kaspar Holten, former director of the Royal Opera House in London, it also incorporated two huge 'female arms' that, rising from the waters, they threw the cards of the deck into the air.

Playing cards as projection screens

The elaborate scenography is the work of the British artist Es Devlin, who has already worked for pop stars such as Adele or U2 and was responsible for the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games.

Devlin clarifies that her source of inspiration was the scene in which Carmen reads in the letters the terrible fate that awaits her.. In addition to being the background of the stage, the cards are also scattered on the ground, on which groups of singers are passing, dancers and acrobats, turning Bizet's most famous opera into a spectacle accompanied by fireworks.

Each of the cards measures 4.3×7 meters and works as an individual display. A total of six high-intensity Christie projectors were needed to cover the entire stage..

"We already had two Christie Hd20K-J Roadster projectors and, to respond to the technical needs that were presented to us, we wanted the best add-on for them. The four Boxer 4K30s were just what we were looking for.", explains Markus Holdermann, Deputy Director of Lighting at the Bregenz Festival.

All projectors had to be combined to create a single global image, without the diversity of screens could damage the integrity of the scene design. In addition, the images had to be appreciated with total clarity, saving the 60 meters of distance that mediate between the light tower and the lake stage, which made the 30.000 Power lumens of the Christie Boxer 4K30.

The projectors and media server were supplied and the media server were taken care of Publitec, a company specialized in the rental and sale of high quality technology for events.

The projectors were installed in projection booths located in the production area and distributed throughout the set. Various images of animation of playing cards were projected, of bullfighters, as well as others taken live from the singers, recorded by two live cameras and one remote camera. "That allowed us to show the various scenes without making major scenic changes., and bring the individual arias closer to the public, thereby increasing its impact", clarifies Holdermann.

The individual 3D arrangement of the cards made them visible from a large number of different angles., a theatrical effect that demanded absolute precision from projectionists. "The projection has more than a hundred cues, that not only had to be launched at the right time, but to direct with pinpoint accuracy to the letters", adds Andre Groß, product manager at Publitec.

In this case it was necessary to discard the Usual Led technology today in a large number of scenographic designs. "A homogeneous global picture, especially when what was intended was that the letters looked like, from all angles, Painted, it is only achieved with projection", confirms Holdermann.

For Andre Groß another decisive technical factor that had to be considered was the angle of vision. "There are certain angles of inclination with which the Led does not work and the cards of the stage were all tilted in different directions".

Overcoming the weather

Adverse weather conditions posed a special challenge to the technical team. For the day of the premiere, in the middle of summer, rain was predicted and lightning lights began to be reflected by the lake. As Holdermann explains, a scenario exposed to the sun, dust or moisture is visually deformed, and image adjustment in the projection turned out to be one of the biggest challenges to solve.

"The compact design, the low weight and, especially, the robustness of the Boxer 4K30 are factors that make it the right projector for this type of work. Its intuitive operation and simple adjustment options ensure projectionists have absolute control of what happens on stage.", says Andreas Flemming, CEO of Publitec.

The projectors did not have to face the fickle weather conditions of the place, since, as Holdermann account, their dimensions allowed them to be accommodated in the projection booths, safe from the elements.

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