STUTTGART, Germany — With over 400 Martin luminaires used to paint a mammoth touring set, classical artist André Rieu recently completed the European leg of “A Romantic Vienna Night,” his world stadium tour, which moves to North America in April.
One of the largest transportable touring sets ever, requiring 80 containers to transport, it was designed with a stage width of 125 meters, a height of 34 meters and a palatial façade that measures 4,000 square meters in size. The set, a reconstruction of the Schonbrunn castle in Vienna, includes a ballroom with gilded chandeliers, fountains and ice for skating.
There are more than 400 Martin Professional automated lights in the rig, including up of 30 MAC III Profiles, 185 MAC 2000 Washes, 58 MAC 2000 Wash XBs, 114 MAC 250 Washes, 10 MAC 2000 Performances and 14 Exterior 200s. The lighting contractor is Rent-All BV.
Maurice Verbeek, who has been designing lighting for André Rieu for nearly 12 years, once again serves as LD, and chose the 1500-watt MAC III Profiles to span the set’s trim heights.
“When I started to draw the plots for the World Stadium Tour, I realized the size of this stage was enormous,” Verbeek said. “The trim of the main rig needed to be 15 meters and we needed a lot of strong lights.”
“At that time, the MAC 2000 Profile/Performance was the strongest spot but I needed something stronger with a bigger zoom range. After finishing the European tour, Rent-All informed me about the new MAC III Profile. After seeing a demo we decided to exchange the VL 3000 with the MAC III.”
Verbeek first used the MAC IIIs on the Australian leg of the tour, programming them to match the gobos and effects of earlier shows. “The MAC III performed very well with few problems. Finally, there is a profile spot that's strong enough to compete with the power of a MAC 2000 Wash.”
Co-designer and programmer on the tour is Gertjan Houben of Moving Lights Support of Amsterdam. “When we started designing for André Rieu's World Stadium Tour we knew we needed something bright, powerful and versatile,” he said.
“While looking at all the usual suspects in that segment, Rent-All BV invited us for a demonstration of the then soon to be released MAC III. Having heard some rumors about it being bright and powerful, we didn't hesitate to accept the invitation. The demo was very impressive and we knew we had found the light we were looking for.”
Luckily, Houben added, the release date of the fixture coincided with the shipping dates to Australia. “When the rig came online in the Telstra Dome in Melbourne and we started programming, the light kept all its promises. The brightness of the output exceeded our expectations and with the impressive zoom we could get the light where we needed it most.”
Houben was impressed with the new color mixing system. “It's fast and mixes beautifully,” he said. “The extended range of color depth in the magenta and yellow are a huge improvement. Together with Bart van Stiphout the system engineer, I was also very pleased with the relatively small channel footprint of the light. When it comes to universes in these big shows, more is not better.”
Looking back on the shows, Houben says that they definitely made the right choice with the MAC III Profile. “I'm looking forward to the next production I can spec it on,” he said.
CREW:
Lighting Designer: Maurice Verbeek
Co-Lighting Designer/Operator: Gertjan Houben
Head Crew Chief: Richard Bovee
Project Manager (lighting): Richard Bovee
Operator: Peter Bosua
Crew Chiefs: Marco Driessen, Peter Visser
System Engineer: Bart van Stiphout
Dimmer Tech: Jos Jacobs
Followspots: Eric Verbeek
Gear:
Lighting Equipment: (stage only)
185 x MAC 2000 Wash™
58 x MAC 2000 Wash XB™
30 x MAC III Profile™
114 x MAC 250 Wash™
10 x MAC 2000 Performance™
14 x Exterior 200™
53 x VariLite 3500 Q
8 x High End Showgun
25 x Xilver Dropleds
12 x RJ D’Artagnan 2500 HMI
3 x RJ Heloise 2500 HMI
4 x RJ Ivanhoe 2500 HMI
6 x RJ Lancelot 4000 HMI
3 x High End Hog III
For more information, please visit www.martin.com
