Expo, Italy – Cirque du Soleil was hosted on the stage of the Open Air Theatre San Carlo for several months, after which it was the turn of the big music acts. Ten dates were arranged in September and October, including seven concerts and three events organized by the participating countries. They have livened up the first autumn evenings at the universal exposition in Milan and will continue until 31 October 2015, when the Expo ends.
The line-up has consisted of a wide selection of different kinds of music and Clay Paky has illuminated them all on the open air stage.
The talented singer-songwriter Elisa, one of the most popular female voices in Italy and a much appreciated artist abroad, came back exceptionally to perform live in Milan after The Colors‘s crowd-drawing concert.
The resident lighting designer Francesco De Cave was called upon to light the RTL Elisa live EXPO music event. He described the lighting design he put together using 42 Clay Paky Alpha Spot QWO 800s. These lights are suitable for installation in particularly difficult environments thanks to their low consumption, zoom range and the uniformity of the light they project at any beam angle.
“The front of the stage is extremely large (44 yards wide) and extends under a huge arch that covers it. The Alpha Spot QWO 800s were spread out and hung along virtually the entire width and height of the stage. Since there were no other visual or disruptive elements, I used lots of short battens arranged at different heights (the lowest was 2.5 yards from the stage floor). The technical rig consisted of a spectacular pyramid of lights, battens and Clay Paky equipment: lots of lights arranged on battens, behind and – especially – over the musicians’ heads.”
They created a cosy, bright back lighting that made using other visual or scenic solutions to cover the entire width of the stage superfluous thanks to the 800 W MSR Platinum lamp that the Alpha Spot QWOs fit, which is better than a previous generation 1200 watt lamp.
Francesco De Cave confirmed this and added with great satisfaction: “despite fitting a 800 watt lamp, it is an extremely bright light with very special gobos and the usual Clay Paky colours that never let you down.”
De Cave used a Whole hog 4 lighting desk. Gigi Belloni’s Volume/Milano Music Service was the service company.