As the old New England saying goes, “if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” So while the earth-toned Christmas of 2015 came on the heels of a freakish warm spell, it would be a mistake to assume that a complex touring production during the month of December will always be met with clear roads and balmy, shirt-sleeves weather.
With high odds of encountering inclement weather and snow as early as Thanksgiving, one might wonder what the Boston Pops were thinking when they first decided it would be a good idea to leave the safe confines of their home at Boston’s Symphony Hall for a trek that would take them hundreds of miles around New England, flirting with potentially icy and snowy conditions in early December.
But that’s just what the Pops have been doing for years. During their 2015 holiday jaunt, from Dec. 4-13, the Pops performed at Hanover Theater in Worcester, MA, Jorgensen Center for the Arts in Storrs, CT, Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island, Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH and Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA.
A Tradition of Updating Traditions
When you learn more about how the Boston Pops evolved, the push to bring classical holiday music to new horizons makes perfect sense. The orchestra’s penchant for taking risks and updating traditions just seems to be part of its DNA.
Founded in 1885, the Boston Pops can be described as “venerable” — the orchestra is 130 years old — but never “stodgy.” The group, whose members are still affiliated with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, launched in 1881, began when some of the classical BSO musicians wanted to branch out and perform the popular music of that era.
While classical music purists might not relish the thought of staging concerts where audiences of all ages sit at tables, enjoying food, drink and holiday décor along with a visit from Santa Claus, the Pops’ longtime leader, Arthur Fiedler, launched the first Holiday-themed Pops concerts back in 1973.
What began as a three-concert series has expanded into a succession of 30 holiday performances. And in 1978, toward the end of Fiedler’s legendary five decades as the Pops’ lead conductor and music director, the orchestra started spreading holiday cheer by bringing its performances on the road.
Conductor John Williams, who composed the well-known themes for movies ranging from Jaws and E.T. to Superman and Star Wars, took up the helm for the Pops in 1980, and the group’s current conductor and musical director, Keith Lockhart, took charge in 1995.
Under Lockhart’s direction, the orchestra has pushed the boundaries of classical music even further — extending the Pops’ musical reach with collaborations that pair classical instruments with jazz stylists, country music idols and kids’ matinee programs.
A 20-Year Partnership
Also marking two decades with the group is East Coast Lighting and Production Services (ECLPS). ECLPS works with the Pops year-round, fulfilling their lighting needs at performances at their home venue in Boston during the winter and at sites including Tanglewood in the Berkshires and Nantucket Island during the summer.
Over the 20 years that ECLPS has lit the Pops, technology has changed, and the lighting rig has morphed from conventional incandescents to automated and LED fixtures.
That cross-fade started with High End Systems Studio Colors, Studio Beams and Studio Spots and now includes LED wash units such as Robe Robin 600s, 800s and 1200s. Pops LD Pam Smith drives the show from a grandMA2 console, with a MA2 Lite as a tracking backup.
Although ECLPS’ holiday rig for the Pops has been updated, the lighting design needs to take into account the requirements of the performers — including their need to read sheet music. Gobos first proved distracting to the musicians years ago, so their use has been long curtailed.
And while Smith appreciates the ability for LED washes to “put a blanket of color over the musicians without flattening them, losing dimension,” she cites “color temperature and slow color fades” as LED challenges. “LED units mix colors differently than color flag fixtures and sometimes cause unwanted color transitions.”
Some elements of the lighting design have stayed consistent through the years, despite the changing rige. One is the use of downstage conventional truss to front light the orchestra, with PARs to front-light the orchestra and ellipsoidals for keylight pickups.
And following tradition, followspots continue to pick up the conductor’s entrance to his center podium. From there, he is illuminated in white light by front and overhead ellipsoidal fixtures. (All of the lights overhead of the orchestra, however, are automated.)
Production Challenges
The Boston Pops’ holiday shows at their home venue, Boston Symphony Hall, have developed into eagerly anticipated, elegant productions, and it can be a tall order to try to replicate the overall feel in a distant venue — particularly when concerts are scheduled with a demanding time-frame.
Production schedules and changing venues and helping crews can also pose a challenge. There might have an evening concert followed by a matinee the following afternoon, or a performance that, one day, is in an arena and the next day a theater.
ECLPS facilitates a fast load-in and minimizes truck space by providing the downstage truss pre-rigged with conventional fixtures. The truss over the stage is a 12-inch box truss with individually hung moving lights. ECLPS also provides the rigging.
Having a fully prepped tour in all departments is one key to ECLPS’ success. Another, according to Mike Marchetti, who has production-managed the Pops’ holiday tour for many years, is to make sure all crew members — including the local crew — is “aware of the goal” and understands “what needs to be done.”
With crew and production members working together year after year, the holiday tour is “truly a team effort,” and one that longtime ECLPS crew members, such as Joe Nieuwendyk, who was there at the very beginning, looks forward to, year after year. “Every season is like the first, and we are excited to take the show on the road again,” he says.
Others involved with the holiday shows — including operations manager Leah Monder, technical director Russ Costa, director of concert operations Chris Ruigomez, LD Pam Smith and production designer Nate Almeida — look forward to the holiday shows as well.
“Collaborating with an organization such as the Boston Pops is truly a treat for the ECLPS team,” Almeida says. He notes that the ability to retain the Pops as a client over than span of time is “an accomplishment that anyone would be proud of,” made possible by “providing quality gear that keeps evolving” and “keeping key personnel in place for so many years.”
In closing, Almeida quotes retired Boston Pops conductor John Williams, now 83, on what makes the orchestra’s performances so special, especially during the holidays.
“So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves,” Williams said. “So it’s gratifying to have something you have done linger in peoples memories.”
If that’s true for the Pops’ conductor and musicians, it’s also true for all those who work to support their performances, year after year.
