Home of the Värmland Opera gears up for Ring Cycle with Stage Technologies

Sweden's 120-year-old Karlstad Theatre is home to the Värmland Opera, which was founded in 1975. The company produces high-quality operatic, musical, and orchestral performances, as well as school productions as part of a thriving educational program. The company tours extensively, both nationally and abroad.

Working alongside construction firm NCC, Stage Technologies provided a complete refit of the building's stage system and machinery as part of a £7m renovation project led by the city of Karlstad. The new power-flying system includes: 31 power flying sets (comprising BigTow winches, fly bars and pulleys); Nomad and Solo desk control; an eight-axis grid trolley system formed of point hoists and positional control chain hoists for easier rigging; three automated lighting bars; and replacement control for the orchestra lift and house curtain. Control was also provided for a revolving platform that tracks on and off stage, spins, and tilts on a hydraulic arm.

The theatre's technical team wanted the system to be as flexible as possible, with the scope to expand its capability in the future in a cost-effective manner. So the groundwork was laid for an expandable system by including extra I/O boxes and the ability to easily add additional hydraulic axes to the revolve.

The first performance to use the brand new equipment will be an ambitious rendition of all four operas of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. The all-new productions are scheduled to start in Easter week, and the cycles will then run with one-day intervals up until mid-July. Special add-on hire equipment was ordered for the production, and the Stage Technologies rental team was able to provide an AU: tour six plug-and-play control rack, a BigTow tracking winch and a customized drive train, all in good time for rehearsals.