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

For the mapping used in the representation of Carmen, Four Christie Boxer 4K30s and two Christie HD20K-J Roadsters were installed on the floating stage in Seebühne.. These were in charge of projecting the images onto the 64 cards that served as screens for this visual spectacle.

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

From 1946, The 'Opera on the Lake' attracts thousands of fans of this musical and stage genre to Bregenz every summer. With a capacity of almost 7.000 locations, The Seebühne is the largest lake theater in the world.
With its amazing sets and its innovative use of the most cutting-edge technologies, the avant-garde opera productions of the Bregenz Festival have made this cultural event famous.

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 that used four Boxer 4K30 and two Roadster HD20K-J of Christie to project, with sharpness and precision, images about 62 cards that were arranged on the stage. The representation, a production by Kaspar Holten, former director of the Royal Opera House, London, He also incorporated two enormous 'female arms' that, rising from the waters, They threw the cards from the deck into the air.

Playing cards as projection screens

The elaborate scenery is the work of 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 his source of inspiration was the scene in which Carmen reads in the letters the terrible fate that awaits her.. Also being the background of the stage, The cards also appear scattered on the floor, over which groups of singers pass, 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 screen. A total of six Christie high intensity projectors were needed to cover the entire stage.

“We already had two Christie Roadster HD20K-J projectors and, to respond to the technical needs that were posed to us, we wanted the best complement for them. The four Boxer 4K30s were just what we were looking for”, explica Markus Holdermann, deputy director of lighting at the Bregenz Festival.

All projectors had to be combined to create a single overall image, without the diversity of screens damaging the integrity of the scene design. Besides, The images had to be seen with total clarity, saving the 60 meters of distance between the lighting tower and the lake stage, which made it absolutely necessary 30.000 lumen power of the Christie Boxer 4K30.

He was responsible for supplying the projectors and the media server. 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 complex.. Various animated images of playing cards were projected, of bullfighters, as well as others taken live from the singers, recorded by two live cameras and one remote. “This 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.”, Holdermann clarifies.

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

In this case it was necessary to discard the LED technology common today in a large number of stage designs.. “A homogeneous global image, especially when the intention was for the cards to look, from all angles, painted, It is only achieved with projection”, confirma Holdermann.

For Andre Groß another decisive technical factor that had to be considered was the viewing angle.. “There are certain angles of inclination at which the LED does not work and the cards on the stage were all tilted in different directions”.

Overcoming the weather

Adverse weather conditions posed a special challenge to the technical team. For the opening day, in the middle of summer, Rain was predicted and the lightning began to reflect across the lake.. As Holdermann explains, a stage exposed to the sun, due to dust or humidity it is visually deformed, and the image adjustment in the projection turned out to be one of the biggest challenges to solve.

“The compact design, the light weight and, very especially, The robustness of the Boxer 4K30 are factors that make it the ideal projector for this type of work. Its intuitive operation and simple adjustment options ensure projectionists have complete control over everything happening on stage.”, notes Andreas Flemming, CEO of Publitec.

The projectors did not have to contend with the site's fickle weather conditions, given that, as Holdermann tells it, Their dimensions allowed them to be accommodated in the projection booths, safe from the elements.