Le Corsaire to appear at Astana Opera stage in a favorable light

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Adolphe Adam’s spectacular ballet Le Corsaire awaits the audience at Astana Opera on January 28 and 29. The world classical ballet gem was staged by the artistic director of the ballet company, the People’s Artist of Russia Altynai Asylmuratova. True magic on the opera house’s stage will be created not only by musicians and ballet dancers, but also by lighting designers, who help the viewers feel the characters’ moods and personalities and immerse themselves in the wonderful world of high art, Kazinform refers to Astana Opera.

Le Corsaire was first presented at Astana Opera in 2018. Music director and conductor of the production Arman Urazgaliyev, set designer Ezio Frigerio, the Academy Award-winning costume designer Franca Squarciapino, projection designer Sergio Metalli, and lighting designer Jacopo Pantani worked on this timeless classical ballet.

«Light is one of the main means of artistic expressiveness of a performance,» Ultai Yerdenbekova, head of the Production Lighting Workshop, says. «The audience’s first applause after the curtain rises belongs to the set designer and lighting designer.»

According to the specialist, modern equipment allows you to create various effects, so the possibilities of theatrical lighting are almost limitless. The light is ‘tied’ to the music, the dynamics of the scenes, echoes the dramaturgy, sets, costumes and other elements. To achieve a sense of integrity of the picture, the specialists maintain the overall color scheme onstage, using the appropriate color lights, and add mood, emphasizing the drama or, alternatively, the romanticism of the plot.

Theatrical lighting specialists are called lighting designers, because with light they create the canvases of performances.

During the years of his work in the opera house, Astana Opera’s lighting designer Mikhail Yepanchin had an opportunity to work with great masters of the craft, including Jacopo Pantani, lighting designer of the ballet Le Corsaire.

«Each production is unique. The lighting of each production is also different,» he says. «Le Corsaire is a classic work, so we used classical lighting techniques, tried to depict the scenes as realistic and natural as possible. There are soft, warm lights, static images that are close to reality: the market and the pier are flooded as if with natural sunlight. The color scheme of lighting fixtures was matched to the video sequence that accompanies the production. The lighting designer’s task is also to take into account the characters’ moods and personalities, time of year and day, historical era, and many other nuances.»

The lighting equipment used in the opera house is very complex and diverse. All of it is connected to the control panel, on which each episode of the performance is programmed.

The lighting designer’s work requires not only an excellent knowledge of the principles of operation of lighting devices and the panel that controls them, but also a complete understanding of what is happening onstage, and knowledge of the specifics of ballet and opera productions. Each of the opera house’s lighting designers has his own duties: Mikhail Yepanchin specializes in ballets, his colleague Karim Ramash specializes in operas, and Sergei Kulak is responsible for the lighting of opera productions and concerts at the Kulyash Baiseitova Chamber Hall.

Photo: astanaopera.kz