A Tall Order for ETC Source Four LED CYC with Dutch Touring Opera

	Nederlandse Reisopera. Photo Richard ten Hof

At 82' wide and 33' high, the cyclorama for the Nederlandse Reisopera (Dutch Touring Opera)'s touring production of Orphée et Eurydice was always going to be a tall order to light, especially because the company's limited budget meant they needed to be in and out of the venue in a day. But, with the help of 40 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr luminaires with CYC adapters, and some clever rigging choices by chief lighting technician Richard ten Hof, they succeeded where others might fail.

The opera, held across the Netherlands on 12 dates throughout May and in the first week of June, tells the story of Orpheus, a mythical musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion, who is said to have been able to charm all living things and even stones with his music.

Ten Hof first came across the new Source Four LED fixtures a year and a half ago, when he was working with Dutch dealer Lightco. "I was amazed," he says. A year later, he decided to try eight of the next generation Series 2 luminaires on a project, each with a 25- to 50-degree zoom lens. "I was impressed with the addition of the lime green emitter," he continues. "It produces a much better white, and we were able to get a much better range of colors."

For the Orphée et Eurydice tour, ten Hof found himself with a problem. They had to rig and focus all the fixtures, hold the performance, and be out of the venue all in the same day. They simply didn't have the budget to stay any longer, meaning that they had to be quick and efficient with their rigging. Initially he tested a different fixture, but it didn't work as well as anticipated. But further funding became available, and so dealers Flashlight and ID Lighting were asked to supply 40 Source Four LED Series 2 Lustr fixtures with asymmetric CYC adapters. "We quickly mounted 20 fixtures at the bottom, and 20 at the top," ten Hof explains. The CYC adapter's special optics have no complicated lensing formula, meaning a bright, even spread is only seconds away. "We couldn't be happier," says ten Hof.

At one point in the show, says ten Hof, some shadow figures appear behind the cyclorama, including an angel, which called for extra lighting: "We were able to project the shadow in an even light, using the CYC lights to paint the shadows, which worked really well. We were surprised by how good it looked."

The show was originally programmed on an ETC Eos control desk, then transferred onto Eos's smaller sibling, Ion, for the show's tour. With the same powerful operating system, but a smaller footprint, Ion is the perfect touring companion to any of the Eos-family desks.

A time-lapse video showing the ease with which the luminaires were rigged and derigged can be found at https://youtu.be/2qN42G8A31s; and a short video of the Nederlandse Reisopera's production of Orphée et Eurydice is available at https://vimeo.com/127256284.