St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre is one of Russia’s most important theatres, where its ballets, comedies and plays have always earned worldwide prestige.
This year, the Mariinsky Theatre will be presenting Richard Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung” in three acts (The Valkyries, Siegfried, Twilight of the Gods), which has finally returned to the stage after over one hundred years.
George Tspin, stage manager of this opera and world-famous guru in this field, has extensive experience in theatre throughout the world:
“Russian theatre could really do with some new technology. It has always used traditional tools, which may be highly efficient but clearly limiting. As experts in this field, our ideas change radically from year to year, whenever new technology and new products are launched on the market. For example, “moving head projectors”, were unheard of in Russian theatres until only a few years ago, yet now we can’t manage without them. No Lighting Designer who has tried them could ever go back to using old theatre lights!”.
Gleb Philshtinsky, Lighting Designer from the Tovstonogov Academic Bolshoy Dramatic Theatre and director of “Light of Theatre” art studio in St. Petersburg, adds: “I am depending more and more on Clay Paky projectors, as they are undoubtedly the best in this field. For this particular opera, we used 12 Stage Color 1200, 4 Stage Zoom 1200 and 2 Stage Profile Plus SV. These are the most technologically advanced products in professional lighting: as intelligent moving body beam shapers, they can also work as spot and washlights. I have to thank Doka, Clay Paky’s dealer in Russia, which has always provided excellent technical and artistic support during planning”.