LD Mariano de Tassis credited Clay Paky gear for helping him fulfill Claudio Baglioni's ideas for lighting his 2009 tour, which included stops in historic venues. "The original idea for the lighting design came directly from the artist and was then developed jointly by myself and Fabrizio "Bicio" Marchi, production and designer manager," said de Tassis. The tour, titled Questo piccolo grande amore (Little Love), after the film and the novel, was not just a tour but more of a modern opera involving the musical love story, with a journey through the artist's historical repertoire represented visually on a 16-by-6.8 meter screen.
"We needed to interpret this album concept with different color schemes, paying great attention to the succession of individual scenic moments," de Tassis added. "The basic input aimed to confer maximum emotion to the characters and elements telling the ‘story,' with just a glimpse of the silhouettes of the musicians."
Clay Paky gear accounted for a large portion of the lighting system – de Tassis used Alpha Spot HPE 700s to demarcate the space on the stage (arranged on the main structure and on the ground), Alpha Beam 300s, vertically stacked on supports behind the screen at a height of between nine and five meters to give an "in line" effect, and Alpha Beam 1500s behind the screen to ensure visual impact.
"What I was most surprised to see was just how small the HPE 700s are compared to the huge power they manage to provide," de Tassis said. "They have the same light as a 1,200-watt product, a wealth of effects and colors and very fast movements," he added, calling the compact dimensions and bright output "revolutionary – it allows you to reinvent the composition of the lighting elements, offering many more opportunities in practical and creative terms.
"I first started in the theatre as an actor and then as a lighting assistant, so I love conveying a theatrical side to live music," de Tassis continued. "I want ‘clean' images, and I always try to hide, if possible, the light source which, with these small spotlights, I can actually do so."
De Tassis also credited the Alpha Beam 300. "The ACL are one of my favorite spotlights, because you can create cross-lighting and radial projections, and the Clay Paky Alpha Beam are the most complete product in this category because they have everything: great power, a wide range of effects, high speed movement. By using these Beams I managed to deeply ‘penetrate' the LED screens: this way the light is both real and filmed. The Beam 1500 are fantastic, very powerful and very agile."
The touring show was divided into three parts: the first was theatrical and cinematographic, with extensive use of the large screens, playing considerably with shades of black and white; the second part had brighter tones, with an evocative use of color, a more lifelike characterization of the ambience, and a third part – the last three tracks – where movement become the star of the show in all its forms.
The tour was set in a venues of historical interest. At the Greek Theatre in Syracuse, for example, the lighting emphasized the amphitheatre's architectural details. At the statues at the Palazzo della Loggia in Brescia, the lighting seemed to bring the statues to life with color.
"Live, theatrical and architectural elements blended into a single art project, with the use of the most advanced technologies in the lighting-video sector," de Tassis concluded. "Among the many shows that I have worked on as lighting designer, this was one of the most comprehensive and challenging from a creativity point of view."
