Russell Crowe is known for his acting talents, but on Night 3 of The Sanremo Music Festival he took to the stage as a crooner and sang “Let Your Light Shine.” Another American, actor, John Travolta, also tried his hand at singing a couple of nights earlier. Such is the magical musical pull of this iconic five-day event, which celebrated its 74th year this February.
Capturing the flavor of the festival up close was Radio Italia’s very popular “Fuori Sanremo,” a program that featured all of the artists from the festival with interviews and live performances recorded in a studio specially set up in this beautiful Mediterranean costal city’s Grand Hotel Londra. Lighting designer Ivan Lavezzoli created an elegantly engaging atmosphere for “Fuori Sanremo,” with a setup that featured CHAUVET Professional fixtures imported by Zalight.
“We organized the setup to best manage, with a single stage, two distinct moments: the afternoon interviews, and immediately after the evening live show,” explained Lavezzoli.“Therefore, I chose very versatile products, to have the possibility of setting up a mini live set in just over an hour.” To accomplish this, Lavezzoli positioned seven COLORado PXL12 Curve motorized LED bars on the ground along two sides of the stage and interspersed them with seven Rogue Outcast BeamWash moving heads. He also placed four WELL STXZX 360 tubes in the center of the stage, to create a nice dimensional relationship between the singers, the surrounding space, and the background LED Wall. For the USA acts he added 10 COLORdash Accent 3 compact LED washes, arranging them in pairs.
Speaking of these fixtures, Lavezzoli noted: “Both the PXL Curve 12 and the Rogue Outcast BeamWash, put in the right setup, were perfect. For the interviews we used the bars with the tilt at one-percent, to give a minimum of movement, and left the Outcast LED ring fixed. “In the evening, the artists came and had 20 minutes of rehearsals available, then we started immediately with the live show, almost blindly,” he continued. “I must say that the PXL Curve 12 fixtures were a godsend, because they are products that allow you to manage a thousand different situations in a very short time. Despite such tight deadlines, I worked very well thanks to the bar movement presets — a quick mode to program. The PXL Curve 12 has the ability to separately manage its 12 mini motorized heads, with the possibility of slow, fast, double color, zoom movements. This is certainly a super complete product that allows you to create a truly beautiful image with just a few pieces.”
Working with his colleague Riccardo Tessari, (a Resolume Arena operator) Lavezzoli created a coordination between the colors of the LED Wall’s content, and those of the projectors. “In the hour or so before the live we made a set list together, looking for the best match between visuals and lights for each song,” he said. “I was amazed by the internal battery life of the Well STX 360. I did a show with them plus rehearsals, and I still had drums left over, despite using them with all their effects; I basically turned them on in the morning and turned them off in the evening. Since there is no real stage, the Well STX 360 allowed me, with just 4 pieces, to create a nice dimensional relationship between the singers and the space around them.”
This year’s Sanremo music festival was hailed for its passion and artistry. These words don’t only apply to the events at the Teatro Ariston where the event took place. Thanks in part to a beautifully balance lighting design, they also describe the atmosphere inside the studio for Radio Italia’s very special Fuori Sanremo.
