The German city of Worms, one of the oldest cities in Germany, is famous for Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther and the Nibelungen saga. The city recently hosted the Nibelungen Drama Festival, with the Cathedral of St. Peter as a backdrop. (If you understand German, you can read all about it at the Nibelungen Festspiele website.) The production ran August 17 through September 1. Personnel included: general contractor, KulturTechnik GmbH; director, Dieter Wedel; supervisor, Klaus Naseband; lighting designer, Ulli Schneider; lighting director, Harald Frings; operator, Sören Neumann Holbeck; set designer, Gerd Friedrich.
"The lighting was a great challenge for the whole production, as we had to span large spaces and floodlight enormous areas," says Harald Frings. "It was not easy to mount all the lights on such a large stage of 40m wide by 20m long. The beautiful cathedral of Worms was to remain visible as a background making it impossible to place any backlights there. The only place to hang moving lights were the backs of the stand. However, by doing so, the light from the front fell in a very small angle. Because of this, we tried to use the light from the side that reached the stage floor after filtering through the big trees on the stage. In addition, moving lights were placed in the position of floor aprons. The standard lighting circumstances of a theatre were not provided. Therefore, we had the opportunity to show the possibilities of moving lights for classical use in theatres. On this occasion, it became clear that it would be impossible to evoke these moods with conventional tools."
Lightpower supplied the lighting and control equipment. The company is sole distributor of Clay Paky fixtures for Germany, and this event made use of 37 Stage Color 1200s, 26 Stage Zoom 1200s and four Stage Profile Plus SVs. All the Clay Paky projectors adapt particularly well to theatrical presentations due to their quality optics and silent operation.
Everything went smoothly during the premiere on August 17, and more than 2,000 guests expressed their enthusiasm with standing ovations. Altogether there were 12 performances with more than 26,000 visitors and an encore performance is planned for following years.