Maxedia Takes Leading Role at “Aqua Opera” in Cape Town

Amidst the likes of some of South Africa’s finest opera singers, names like Sibongile Khumalo, Fikile Mvinjelwa and Derick Ellis, the “Aqua Opera” in Cape Town invited a newcomer onto her stage. Performing for the first time on African soil, or rather, African water, Maxedia took a leading role.

The location for the “Aqua Opera,” directed by Angelo Gobbato, is exquisite to say the least. The stage is set on a barge at the V & A Waterfront and enables the audience, seated on land, to view the breathtaking backdrop of Table Mountain and the ocean. Logically the tide had to tie up with the production. Left to its own device, the barge would steadily rise as the tide came in during the show. Meetings with the Harbour Master established a perfect time for the “Aqua Opera” to commence with the least amount of interference by the ocean.

Once the natural phenomenon had been taken care of, the technical aspects could be put in place. André Rossouw, Lighting Designer for the “Aqua Opera,” had the mammoth task of ensuring a lighting feast for both the live audience and viewers at home, who would see a televised version of the show at a later date on station SABC2.

Trying to combine theatre lighting with television requires the know-how of a specialist, and for this reason, Kurt Du Preez from Upstage was called in. Together André and Kurt transformed a stark stage into a canvas washed in color.

The Maxedia Digital Media Composer provided images that fascinated and captured the attention of the outdoor theatre goers. Capable of handling a multitude of digital media, images, video, 3D graphics and more, a media server with DMX control such as Maxedia gives the lighting designer full control of both the lighting and video elements of a show. At the “Aqua Opera,” Maxedia was controlled via the Maxxyz Control Desk.

Robbi Nassi from Martin distributor Electrosonic SA spent the week in Cape Town with Kurt for support on the product. “Maxedia is an AV product that runs with lighting. It is simple to use and did work well for a product that had never been used by any of us before,” commented Robbi. “We had some software problems and we were trying to get the video format into the right format. It was a learning curve and now that we know what needs to be done, it will get better. Maxedia’s a brilliant product and is going to do very well.”

Along with Maxedia, lighting naturally played an enormous role. Supplied through Electrosonic, 26 MAC 2000 Profiles, 8 MAC 2000 Wash, 12 MAC 550 profile spots and 5kw TV Lights and scrollers were utilized. Reflecting the surrounding ocean, the animation in the MAC 550s was used to create water and fire effects. The result was stunning, contributing to the ambience on set.

In this stance, the usual Cape Town wind took a back seat and allowed opera enthusiasts to thoroughly enjoy superb entertainment under African skies. This was entertainment, both acoustically and visually.