About Us

{contentTitle}

Accessory

{name}

Account Removal

User Account Update

Account Update

User Activation

Activation page

Amortization Calculator

{title}

Application Picker

Job Detail Page

Career Page

Cookies Bar

Cookies

Cookies Info

Cookies Page

Cookies Info (CZ)

Cookies Page (CZ)

Disclaimer

Error 404

Error 500

PDF Error

Event

Expos&Events

Expos&Events Page

FilePage

File

User Forgotten Password

Forgotten Password page

Gallery

General Translations

General Spot On

Gobo

Happy Hours

Homepage

HP Slider

Homepage Slider

Innovation

Innovation Page

Inquiry

Key Feature Category

{intDes}

User New Password

New Password page

News

News Detail

News Detail Page

News Page

Office

Offices Page

Products Parameters

Param Or Feature

Patent

{number}

Patents Page

Person

{firstName} {lastName}

Podcast page

Privacy

Privacy Policy

Privacy (CZ)

Privacy Policy (CZ)

Product

Product Detail

Product Detail Page

Product Overview Pages

Products Page

Rental Region

{region}

User Registration

Registration

Rental

Rental Finder

Search Page

Short Video

{internalDes}

Slide

Smart Links

Spot On Index

Support

Support Project Registration

Support Rma Form

Sustainability

Technical Training

Technical Training Calendar

Technical Training Type

{subtitle}

User Thank You

Thank You page

Trademark

{trademark}

Trademarks Page

Unavailable Locale Error

User Login Modal

User Login

User Login page

Video

Video Spot On

Wheel

 We use cookies to personalise content and ads and to analyse our traffic. Please see “More about cookies” to learn more about how they are used on our website. Click “I agree” to activate them or “Close and just use cookies not requiring consent” if you do not want them. You can change your settings on "Cookies" in the footer at any time.

 on Instagram and never miss a story again!

The browser you are currently using is not supported. To prevent glitches and functionality issues, switch to different browser.

Robe UK helped lighting designer Jan Osborne to realise a dynamic and mercurial design for a rare performance of Purcell’s Baroque opera "Arthur", performed by the Crickhowell Choral Society. The sole performance was staged in the atmospheric bowels of St Edmund’s Church in Crickhowell, South Wales.

The newly launched Robe UK, direct importer and marketer of Robe Show Lighting products from the Czech Republic, supplied Osborne with six Robe ColorMix 250 wash fixtures for her show.

Arthur was directed and conducted by local music teacher and aficionado Stephen Marshall as part of Crickhowell Choral Society’s renowned biennial May Festival. The show featured a cast of over 100 including a full Baroque orchestra, two choruses, dancers and a dozen professional soloists.

Osborne, also course coordinator for the Performing Arts Department at nearby Ebbw Vale College and a lecturer on the College’s BTEC Music and performing Diplomas, has lit the last two May Festival operas performed in the church. The 2001 production of "Orpheus & The Underworld" was done with just 12 old fresnels and some imaginative ‘mantronic’ power switching and mid-performance re-patching!

Osborne was determined that this year’s production should move forward in terms of lighting technology and flexibility. She scouted around for a good deal and a willing partner to supply lights for the show’s extremely tight budget – and Ian Brown and Nathan Wan at Robe UK came up with the goods.

With the production being semi-staged (costume but no set), lighting was absolutely vital in unfolding the complex and compelling narrative. Osborne needed to light the main performance area just downstage of the pulpit as well as the aisle which saw frequent entrances and numerous dance sequences take place.

Osborne needed small lightweight, high brightness, low power lighting fixtures able to run off one 13 Amp ring main! They also had to be blend unobtrusively into the splendid church architecture, some of it dating back to the late 13th century.

Osborne and her 3 crew rigged the fixtures overnight the Saturday the evening before the Sunday performance. They had a tight slot rigging and programming slot, shoehorned in around the venue’s hectic ecclesiastical schedule which included a wedding, a confirmation and a choral recital!

Four ColorMix 250s were positioned down the aisle, stood on vertical pieces of lightweight trussing ratchet-strapped to the church arches. Two were stand-mounted upstage of the pulpit and main performance area, in front of the organ on one side and the chorister room the other.

Osborne borrowed Ebbw Vale College’s Avolites Pearl console to programme and run the fixtures. Schedules were so tight that she also had to utilise the only full dress rehearsal – the afternoon before the performance – for programming. Here the speed, ease and hands-on functionality of the Pearl came into its own.

By the end of the dress, there were over 100 cues in the board, and the ColorMix’s were doing the business in terms of creating a dramatic and emotional backdrop of Arthur.

“I simply could not have achieved lighting this sophisticated and effective with conventional fixtures”

“The Color Mix’s are quick and easy to programme and rig – and worked without a glitch”

. She also heaped praise onto her trusty Avo console. This joined the College after a successful lottery bid for equipment in 1998, and is used constantly to teach students the lighting design modules of the courses.

The resulting wow factor for Arthur’s lighting was incredible. The sold-out audience responded to and greatly appreciated Osborne’s technical and imaginative sculpting of the opera’s multiple scenes and environments with light beams and colour. Osborne was even invited to come to stage to take a bow with cast and orchestra!!

Others involved in this memorable production included Stage Electrics, who supplied the trussing, additional rigging and extraneous cable requirements, and Osborne’s crew – Jim Pollard, Katherine Davis and Michael Jones.

“Jan and the lighting took our production into a new dimension. It’s been hugely exciting to work with technology on this level”

Crickhowell Choral Society’s next full scale operatic production will be in 2005. The title is not yet confirmed, but Osborne is already onboard and she’s looking forward to pushing the technical envelope further forward.

For more press information on Robe UK, please call Louise Stickland on 01865 202679, 07831 329888, E-mail: louise@loosplat.com.

Robe UK Colors the Mix for rare opera

Discover more news

Robe LEDBeam 350s Assist with Transformation

Robe Finds Sanctuary at Rumbach Street Synagogue

Saddleback Church invests in Robe FORTE’S

Robe for Temple of Divine Providence

Navigate

Log in

Follow Us

Stay in Touch

Navigate

Log in

Follow Us

Stay in Touch