In the Met’s new Lucia, the very first scene takes place in a forest at night. The lighting recreates the eerie atmosphere of the moon shining through the trees. Members of the Met’s Electrical Department explain how this is done in one of the presentations on the Grand Tier: “You put a metal pattern in front of the light, and then you have it rotate slowly,” one of them explains. “It’s actually pretty easy to do, but the effect is spectacular.” One visitor would like to know if the lighting crew has to read the score for their cues. “Fortunately for us, we don’t,” comes the answer, with a laugh. “That’s the Stage Managers’ job. They have the score in front of them during the performance and call the cues, not just for the lighting but also for the set changes, and of course for the singers, so that everybody is on stage on time for their entrance.”

A member of the Met’s Electric Department explains the use of a lighting console.

This entry was posted by Philipp Brieler on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 1:25 pm and is filed under 2007–08 Season. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.