Friday 13 April 2012

Phantom of the Opera in Singapore


Some years ago I was involved with rigging for The Really Useful Group, which is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production company. They were setting up ‘Phantom Of the Opera’ at Esplanade Theatres in Singapore and I took part in the sound team, which was delivered by System Sound in Australia. System Sound is one of the largest PA companies in the world and I was there through a placement during my studies. Under you can see some of my behind-the-scenes pictures from the production:

Esplanade Theatre from the stage

A lot of fire power is needed to run all the speakers...


Main PA amps

Smaller amps for surrounds etc

Before delay times were set for the speakers

Phantom of the Opera is done in full surround. These speakers are found at the front of the stage.  Most front speakers are built directly into the stage rig without a cabinet. The result is a very natural sound and the team is very concerned with clean phase-response. The system is designed by Martin Levan, whom you can read about here & here.

Preparing the orchestra pit
A Neumann U-89 for the backstage chorus and
a screen where the singers can follow the show
Neumanns, Sennheisers and AKGs
ready to go into the orchestra pit


A huge Cadac console (in two modules) ensures both a clean phase response and versatile operation (and heavy lifting)
Double playback systems with A/B switch and reverbs
Early dress-rehearsal in progress
The whole stage is flown in from Australia in modules and lots of speakers are hidden inside the rig. Here you can see the lighting team running through the scenes.
The Phantom's organ backstage
Costumes
More costumes
Props
How to dress up the actors
'Phantom of the Opera'
Elaborate communication systems
Comms

Backstage: one side of the stage was turned into a huge production-area with power-supplies wire-less receivers, special effects operations etc. Right behind the stage there were wardrobes, make-up and much of the props. The side you can see here however was dedicated to flights, equipment and storage. All the equipment was flown in from Australia with a Boeing 747, consequently there'll be the need for both proper backstage infrastructure and storage. 





Thursday 12 April 2012

Leeds International Festival for Innovations in Music Production and Composition (IFIMPaC) 2012

Spring is here again and that only can mean one thing! Leeds College of Music in association with the Journal of Music, Technology & Education is perilously close to holding its annual conference on music production and composition. It has undergone a slight name-change and is now known as ‘Leeds International Festival for Innovations in Music Production and Composition’ (IFIMPaC).

The event will take place on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th of April 2012 and it is packed with top quality paper presentations and mingling. You can find a links to the event here and here.

Leeds College of Music (Photo credits)
Former keynote holder Bill Drummond enjoying a climb in a tree like most other kids (photo credits)

Dr. Dale Perkins of Leeds College of Music, the brain behind IFIMPaC (photo credits)

Paper Publication by Louise Rossiter

Last year I mentioned a research paper written by Louse Rossiter from the University of Edinburgh. It was presented at The Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition at Leeds College of Music.

Rossiter has been researching on the use of acoustic ecology as a therapeutic and educational tool for children and young people with troubled backgrounds, and I am pleased to share that Rossiter’s paper has been published. It is well worth a read for anyone involved in Music Technology, Music Therapy, Electro Acoustic Composition, Acoustic Ecology and Education. The paper was published in the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care and you can find the link to the journal from the Celcis web page.

Information about the paper:
Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care October/November 2011

Rossiter completed her PhD in January 2016 (CV).

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(This post has seen minor edits since first published to update links and content.)

Updates: April 2012

1. Sound Production for Tour in Norway

City of Ã…lesund


Week 13 was spent on the road doing sound for a band from a local Folkehøgskole, which is a particular type of school much found in Scandinavia. The school was Rødde Folkehøgskole, which was fun for me cause they used to collaborate with the Folkehøgskole I went to myself many years ago.

The tour went through the inland South of Trondheim and eventually to the town of Oppdal. After Oppdal the tour bus drove on towards the coast to the cities of Molde, Ålesund and some of their surrounding areas. After Ålesund we had an over-night journey in the bus, crossing fjords with ferries and driving through the deep mountain valleys of the coast. A few days later I was back at Rødde Folkehøgskole to do sound for their final show at their own school. What a show! Playing for the home-audience was definitely something special and all we had been working at for a week came together as perfectly as it possibly could.

The band played a mixture of 60’s covers from the likes of the Beatles, modern blues-rock and their own original compositions. No doubt there were some songwriters in the pack to look out for as well!

Thanks very much to the iMusic tour crew for letting me travel around with you for a week of fun! If you want a glimpse behind the scenes, here’s days: 1, 2 (my favourite), 3 and 4.

2. High School Show

Like announced in a previous post March saw another Creative High School Project at the Christian Senior High-school in Trondheim. This time the topic was ‘Justice.’ For one week a great team of almost 160 students took part in making two final shows around the topic of justice. In particular, we narrowed in at the problem of human trafficking and the growing number of slaves around the world in our own days.

The student-group was split into dancers, actors, singers, band, designers, scenography, video-producers and more. An editorial team kept the wires hot in social media to promote the show and presented the whole group with an overview of what the other groups were doing on a day-to-day basis.

The show was received incredibly well by audience, school staff and parents and we got a real sense that the quality of this production was touching new heights. Leading the production was great fun thanks to a very dedicated group of students and a strong team of professional instructors from the creative industries!

For more on the Christmas show, click on this link!




3. And…

Much time has also been spent on writing research proposals and the outlines of a possible television series. More to come!