LUCE estratti LUCE 323 _ Calafiore _ Marco Filibeck | Page 8

Another fundamental factor consists of rehearsal
times on stage, which have been greatly
condensed due to the increase in the theatre
programming and stage curtain open-time. How
to handle this criticality?
Increased productivity leads to a greater capacity
to respect the short times of the schedule, and
still guarantee the expected result. The light
designer must prepare his project with great care,
paying attention to the smallest details. The
space for testing has been greatly reduced, virtual
simulation programmes are used, with 3D
models, which can be very helpful to reduce the
time for planning the light effects.
permanently. I might even say that theatre
performances may not be as we all know them
today had there first not been Strehler’s Die
Entführung aus dem Serail.
In order to better understand its innovative
content, we must imagine how the theatre stage
was illuminated till then, and in general, what
was the function of light. In the magazine
Fermata spettacolo, the critic Luigi Paolillo
described the historic stage setting, “Strehler’s
direction elaborates the metatheatrical aspect,
making the actors move from the light into the
shadows and vice-versa, which already exceeds
From your privileged point of view, which
Italian and international light designers must
we follow attentively?
Working at the Teatro alla Scala I have had
the opportunity to collaborate with a number
of light professionals. Among them I would like
to point out two Italian light designers:
Pasquale Mari and Alessandro Carletti. Mari
collaborates with director Mario Martone
and was the lighting designer of the opera
Andrea Chénier, which inaugurated the new
season of Teatro alla Scala on the 7th December,
and whose beautiful and interesting conversation
Il ratto dal serraglio. Teatro San Carlo, Napoli – Teatro alla Scala, Milano. Regia di / Directed by
Giorgio Strehler, scene di / scenes by Luciano Damiani, luci di / lights by Marco Filibeck
expression closer and at times it realizes it
completely, with a knowledge that draws from
experience and technical know-how. I believe
that Teatro alla Scala must allow the light
designers the greatest range of expression through
updated technical units. The professionals on
their part must have the competences that are
necessary to manage the new systems,
in exchange of greater creative potentiality.
You often work abroad. What has been your
experience and which are the greatest differences
in carrying out your profession in Italy or i
n another country?
In Europe the technologies are equivalent
in all the important theatres. Teatro alla Scala
in Milan, the Opéra in Paris and Covent Garden in
London all have similar work systems and
equipment. For example, in view of an exchange
in a co-production of the theatres, which
nowadays is very common, an effort is made to
make the lighting control console more similar, in
order to import a show from one theatre to the
other more easily. The situation is quite different
in the United States, where the light culture is
very different from the European one, and where
surprisingly conventional projectors are
used more often.
Therefore, the language and the result change?
No, absolutely not. I would say that the ability
of the light designer, in this case, is to know how
to translate, by adapting the equipment and
the characteristics of the show, without losing
the visual content and the original endpoints.
Let us take a look at Italy, for the twentieth
anniversary of the death of Giorgio Strehler,
Teatro alla Scala set up Mozart’s Die Entführung
aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio),
in all its pure beauty, and you were in charge
of the lighting of the prestigious new setting.
Can you tell us of how you dealt with this
milestone in the world of opera?
Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an
opera that must be studied, and should be
included in the programme of any Beaux-Arts
or Theatre Academy. Its debut at the Salzburg
Festival in 1965 was with scenes and costumes by
designer Luciano Damiani, and there have been
replicas at Teatro alla Scala and many other
European theatres in these past 50 years. It was a
performance that brought great innovation and
influenced and modified stage setting
So moving lights are not used in American
theatres?
These are used less than in Europe.
Don Quixotte. Semperoper Ballet, Dresden, coreografia di / choreography by Aaron Watkin,
scene di / scenes by Patrick Kinmonth, luci di / lights by Marco Filibeck
stage acting, and he often makes them face the
audience directly, giving them the possibility
of moving out and back in, apparently freely,
from play-acting, bowing from the stage at the
public after an aria, and turning on dimmed-
lights in the theatre hall during the performance
– theatre, pure theatre that is backlit and that
shows us the artificial and illusory nature not
only of the theatre stage but also of what we
obstinately counterpoise to it, and call reality”.
I examined this setting delicately, like one
would do with a precious crystal, wanting
to re-propose the original setting intact, with its
precious canon, made of incandescence and low
tension, backgrounds with blinding skies, deep
silhouettes. It was a “lesson” also for me.
I have read on LUCE; Alessandro Carletti
collaborates permanently with director
Damiano Michieletto, whose international
success is growing.
And across the Italian frontiers, I have personally
met A. J. Weissbard, lighting designer for
Robert Wilson and lighting professional in various
sectors, including Fashion; the Russian lighting
designer Gleb Filshtinsky, who realized the
lighting of Madama Butterfly last year and also
other productions of Teatro alla Scala;
Peter van Praet, who collaborates with director
Robert Carsen; and Jean Kalman, whose work
always has a recognizable style and a personal
artistic language, for me Jean is an absolute
point of reference.
MAGIC LANTERN / LUCE 323
79