Italy – This unique live event for all kinds of Italian music was staged at the beginning of this slow-to-start summer on 8 and 9 June. It was streamed over the Internet, and broadcast live on Radio Italia TV. The presenters introduced the artists that took part in the two concerts, under the driving rain, during the live linkup with Radio Italia.
Some of Italy’s most loved artists appeared in Milan’s Piazza Duomo: Alessandra Amoroso, J-Ax, Fedez, Enrico Ruggeri, Laura Pausini, Biagio Antonacci, Emma Marrone, Marco Mengoni, and Elisa, accompanied by the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bruno Santoni. The square was packed with at least 150 thousand people, and the show was lit by the imperceptible movement of textural projections from Claypaky lights.
The event’s general production team, led by Gaetano Notaro, along with Radio Italia’s founder Mario Volanti, gave the task of conceiving a new technical stage design for the fifth edition of “Radio Italia Live – Il Concerto” to Show Designer Giancarlo Toscani, in conjunction with Visionaria Art Group. This imposing event, presented by Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu, is – among other things – the result of a continuous long-standing collaboration between the producers and the Milan city council.
“The project stemmed from the crazy idea of holding a concert in Piazza Duomo. I was kept busy for several months looking for stage and technical solutions that would comply with all the constraints imposed by the equipment, security levels, artistic demands and the needs of the orchestra and its various sections: rhythm, woodwind…” It was also necessary to take the constraints that stemmed from the scheduled video and television filming into account.
“These constraints recur year after year, and constitute a new personal challenge for me to create an elegant, practical, spectacular show image that is totally new compared to the image and design tried out the year before.”
A large screen on the backdrop, in the middle of the box-like stage, broadcast video graphics made by The Mad Box. These were repeated dynamically on all the large LED surfaces installed.
“The LED surfaces were concave on the stage and convex off, and formed columns that covered and hid the hanging elements inside the stage structure or facing out onto the square. They moved and softened the linear and square shapes of the box-like stage. The light and projected visual effects were customized for each artist, and were at the centre of my stage design.”
Thanks to agreements with Newlight, the PRG group lighting service company, the lighting designer chose the most reliable and innovative lights to unravel all the knotty problems in this challenge. He successfully included a number of Claypaky fixtures.
“I placed two convex battens with twenty A.Leda B Eye K 20s behind the two battens covered with LED panels. My lighting design was as symmetrical as it was dynamic so that it could produce colour variations and scenic depth despite the many video surfaces.
To help the audience perceive the third dimension, I placed battens, LED panels and lights with different levels of light intensity at different heights.”
Thirty Mythos units were hung on the rear-most battens.
“With all those LED panels, very bright lights were needed: there is nothing better than the Mythos at the moment. Another thirty Mythos units, with slowly moving gobos, were used to illuminate the buildings around the square.”
Lowerable two-yard battens, with four Sharpys each, were placed on the side lighting ring on the stage. “A total of 64 Sharpys. And I must say they were the most spectacular fixtures. In the end, it was their incomparable light that won over the LED videos.”
Lighting service companies: Newlight, Technovision, and Event Management.
Visual effects in conjunction with The Mad Box.