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PORTFOLIO
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| SWEENEY TODD | ||||
THEATRE |
Opera Theatre of St. Louis |
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An opera company producing Sondheim is of course not unique, but this production was quite impressive on many levels. The Director Ron Daniels was part of the team that created the 1973 stage play by Christopher Bond, which Sondheim saw and which inspired the creation of the Sweeney Todd we know today. This version brought back the original Jonathan Tunick orchestrations with a 45 piece pit of St. Louis Symphony players. It stars Karen Ziemba (Mrs. Lovett) and Rod Gilfry (Sweeney). Coupled with a steampunk visual aesthetic this was a timeless and powerful Sweeney Todd. In my early design discussions, the artistic director and production manager urged that the show not sound reinforced at all - so that it would aesthetically remain inline with opera audeince expections. I carefully designed the vocal system to stay unobtrusive both visually and aurally, which was a challenge given that the other three shows in rotating rep are not reinforced. The theatre is a 900 seat thrust configuration - and a thrust presents a unique challenge for opera- and short of arena configurtaion it is the most difficult for sound designers. The iconic steam whistle was a fun challenge for me. It is a pervasive and foreshadowing symbol of the bad things in London. There are many sounds layered: a pitched-shifted slide whistle, tea kettle, pig squeals, balloon screeches, metal train wheels, and lots of processing. It is normally written into the score as part of the percussion section but we wanted it to resonate from around the theatre and I assured the team it could be cued musically in rhythm. A fast playback system and a musically adept stage manager allowed that to happen. |
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THE WHISTLE
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IMAGES |
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PAPERWORK EXAMPLES |
download: system package (PDF) | |||
