Pixera makes possible the staging of Elektra in Germany's largest opera house

The media server platform Pixera of BY Stumpfl It is the backbone of 'Elektra', represented in the Baden-Baden Festival Hall. A creative opera that proposed a kinetic staging with complex movements and intricate visual demands.

The recent production of Elektra which has been represented in the Baden-Baden Festival Hall, Germany's largest opera house of its kind with seating capacity 2.500 spectators, has demonstrated the capabilities of the platform Stumpfl AV Pixera multimedia server.

Elektra It is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal., adapted from his drama Elektra 1903. Directed by Philipp Stölzl and Philipp M. Krenn in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the show required advanced projection capabilities due to its kinetic staging with complex movements and intricate visual demands.

El escenario, designed by Philipp Stölzl together with Franziska Hahn, consists of steps, moving stairs and drawers with the text of Hugo von Hofmannstahl's Elektra libretto projected onto the stage and background.

Judith Selenko y Peter Venus, the brains behind the creative technical and visual elements of the show, Pixera praised for its robust performance and flexibility.

“My first big show scheduled with this solution presented unique technical requirements”, explained Peter Venus. “Kinetic scenic elements needed precise and reactive control, that the data connection Posi Stage Net from Pixera made it easy. This allowed us to control all elements individually and in groups, adapting in real time to the dynamics of the scenario”.

Venus, who comes from the world of sound but has become more interested in video, highlights the importance of preprogramming and visualization. “No pre-programming, nothing would have worked. Our show had more than 1.000 video clues, that we configure and adjust after testing”.

The first projection tests were carried out with the original model created by the set designers. After, Selenko and Venus built a scale model 1:25 of the stage that allowed them to work with great precision. “Pixera's capabilities were instrumental in visualizing and adjusting our designs during testing”, explains Selenko.

Selenko and Venus, both with musical training, they see video as their instrument with which to participate in an opera production. “As you gain experience, you also decide to buy a better instrument, one that opens up more possibilities and dives into different areas. For this, we choose AV Stumpfl media server, that offered us exactly these possibilities”, Selenko adds..

The idea of ​​putting the text of the libretto in the background was from Philipp Stölzl. However, the typography was designed by Selenko, and each scene has its own typographic concept. They implemented the entire script in the form of graphics and text, allowing them to focus on the content. The challenge was finding the balance between not having to animate continuously for an hour and a half, since musicians have variable rhythms. This required careful technical foresight and strategic planning..

“There are passages that are pre-programmed and then we have animations that are done live. We have the material in Pixera and we can place it in a free space and enlarge it in a 50% at the same time". The volume of video content in the show was another challenge, which involved naming the tracks precisely and the assistance of a playwright. “Constant collaboration with the director was crucial, which allowed us to explore all possibilities on a smaller scale before final implementation”, Venus clarifies.

According to Selenko and Venus, Pixera streamlines the show production process, as it supports more than a thousand video tracks and integrates live animation with pre-programmed sequences. This combination of manual and automatic adjustments ensured that the visuals were in sync with the live performance, respecting the rhythm of the actors in the show.