Operas brought to life with HDC-1500s

Zoom Productions is completing work on the recording of four challenging operas. Shot using Sony HD for world leading classical music label Arthaus Musik, the four operas — Tristan and Isolde, Ice and Steel, Werther and Haensel and Gretel — are performed in the unique German Regietheater tradition.

The exacting standards of the director-led, radical Regietheater productions, with precise requirements for staging and for the music itself, presented plenty of challenges to the video production team. “German Regietheater is much more aggressive and more radical than anywhere in the world. It’s a very modern way of looking at opera,” says executive producer Rainer Mockert.

Shooting one or two live performances in order to record each opera, the need to work with the theatre and the audience was paramount. “We wanted to find and record operas that were seldom produced or that were produced in a new and innovative way,” says Mockert. To do this meant working with the production and causing minimal disruption.

Ice and Steel

In the case of Ice and Steel, there was a particular challenge. The avant-garde opera was first performed in the late twenties in Saint Petersburg and quickly closed down by Stalin. “It’s extremely interesting, but difficult to film as there are at times 30 people moving about on the stage, many with solo roles,” says Mockert.

Each production required five days of preparation, including vital consultation between the video engineer and the theatrical lighting designer. Mockert and video director Brooks Riley between them have extensive experience in both the filming of classical music and international feature film production. Neither had significant experience in using HD, but both realised that the format would be the best way to maintain the quality of the footage, while having flexible and less obtrusive cameras.

The OB was covered using a fly-away unit of Sony HD cameras from Munich-based Ludwig Kameraverleih, which also provided the production manager, five cameramen and four other operators. The kit included six Sony HDC-1500s with a series of Canon lenses and six Sony HDW-2000 recorders.

“I feel extremely good about using these HD cameras,” Mockert says. “The wonderful thing with HD is that the picture gives you a 3D feeling, because the stage lighting gives a 3D feel.”

Matching cameras

The four operas were recorded at the state theatres of Dessau, Saarbrücken and Karlsruhe over November and December in 2007. “These are not the big opera houses,” says Mockert, “but they are very interesting and much more flexible. One advantage was that they could do lighting correction with the video engineers. We don’t use additional lights, which is one reason for the Sony HDCAM — we match cameras and correct them live during recording. We’re always matching cameras between each other so that there is no need for a big colour correct afterwards and this works very well.”

Ludwig Kameraverleih has used its HD fly-away OB for a raft of opera recordings over the past couple of years. Since recording Mozart operas at the Salzburg Festival in 2006, it has designed its unit for this sort of work and its team of experienced technicians are trained to work around a theatre production team and an audience.

“Often people think that an external camera team will disturb the peaceful and concentrated atmosphere in the opera,” says Ludwig Kameraverleih’s key account manager, Rainer Heuermann. “It’s one point of our service to avoid this confusion and not to influence the internal processes as far as possible. To achieve this we have to talk a lot before shooting with the technical director of the opera and many others. For example, a short briefing with the make-up artists is essential.

“Some weeks before shooting we make an appointment on location in order to define the exact camera positions. This is particularly important because the theatre often has to remove some chairs for the tripods and these places can’t be sold to the public.”

HDC-1500 cameras deployed

The six cameras were deployed in each theatre in order to get a balance of close-up and longer shots. One was positioned close to the orchestra. “The lens would have to be at the singer’s eye-level, but not below looking upwards which can look ugly,” explains Mockert. Another camera was in the centre of the audience to get a wide shot of the stage. Two further HDC-1500s were recording from the balcony.

The shoots involved a multi-track recording using 64 tracks, allowing for 5.1 Surround sound. During the shoot there was a rough stereo mix. “

The four operas vary in length, from Ice and Steel at 95 minutes to Tristan and Isolde which is closer to three and a half hours. The recordings from each will be distributed to TV stations as well as being used for the Arthaus Musik DVD. Zoom is editing together footage from the cities where the operas were performed and interviews with the heads of the opera houses, to complete the DVD.

8 April 2008