As show director and show production/lighting designer for Brazilan mega-star Luan Santana's show at Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, on August 20, 2022, Kley Tarcitano collaborated on the lighting in partnership with LD Ramiro Martins from Pixel Light and programmer Richard Silva. Live Design talks with Tarcitano about this exceptional one-off concert experience.
Live Design: Is the design different from previous concerts?
Kley Tarcitano: Yes, this was like a 2.0 version of Luan Santana's current tour, Luan City. He was supposed to bring the Luan City tour set to Lisbon, but to celebrate his 15th career anniversary, and tape three brand-new tracks, Luan decided to have a different show look, but still with the Luan City theme. So he brought me on board for a one-off at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, one of the largest arenas in Europe. The concert was completely sold out and he performed in front of 20,000 fans. I directed the video for the three new songs with the great Brazilian director Gui Dalzoto.
LD: What was the overall look you were going for?
KT: A show that resembles Luan City, but with a different show design using the screen content to recreate the set architecture of the Luan City tour set, in a virtual version. But I did my own version of it and we also made a video to use between acts to show Luan's 15-year career journey in a one-minute video. I had a help from filmmaker Deivid Correia for that.
LD: How do the sets and lighting combine with the use of video?
KT: My vision was when people see the set to think for a second that it was a real structure and not LED content. I placed real lights between the screens on the design, but also lights and some neon strips on the LED content to create the effect, or when a light beam hits the stage floor I want a reflection of that beam on the neon tubes (on the screen content ) and shadows of that light on the content to give this realism. After that, using laser effects to "turn on the neons" and Luan City lights to shine bright. During the show, the city transforms in different shapes, colors, and formations. The content has great realism thanks to Ronan Bonfim from Chroma Garden, who developed the amazing 3D-visuals for us. We had seven really big LED walls, the center one was in two parts to use as an artist entrance and revealing a lighting wall with three different types of lighting fixtures, Jarag-5 Yoke and Robe MegaPointe, and two 20W Kvant RBG lasers in the center and eight more along the set. These were provided by Laser Effect
The stage itself was pretty straightforward, but I designed the stage longer with two side stages, SR and SL. This way Luan could be closer to the fans on the sides, and we had a satellite stage in the middle of the arena. To connect the two stages, I used a flow bridge that flies in, up, and down, when needed. This bridge was also use as a third stage, and the fans got really excited because they could be closer to their Idol. The stage was provided by Europalco, and Altice Arena technical director Pitta, who has more than 40 years of experience in tours and staging, was a key element to make all happen smoothly.
LD: What things do you have to take into account in order to tour a show like this?
KT: I met Luan In a recording studio in Miami, and was introduced to him by executive producer Rodrigo Branco. Luan is recording his new album in Miami, and he just signed with SONY USA. The label will launch him as an artist in the US, so we met and started designing the show in the US. I pitched different concepts to Luan, and after that I started to work with the Brazilian team, Luan's manager Amarildo Santana, Daia Souza, Junior Reis, Thiago Gomes, Jose Marinheiro, Leo Andrade, Luan Pedro, and Sergio Bianchini, who gave me all the support to make the creative happen. You can have all the great ideas, but you need a strong team to help you bring everything to life.
LD: What was the biggest challenge with the design?
KT: It was challenging because the show was produced in three different countries: me in US; Luan's team led by manager Amarildo Santana in Brazil; plus the promoter Jorge Veloso and Francisco Ribeiro with the production company in Portugal, so it was three countries has different cultures and different ways to do concerts. In Portugal, for example, they don't use as much rental deck like have in the US market, where we can have any shape of stage, round, straight, triangle, you name it, it is easy to rent. In Portugal you need custom, and custom is more expensive, so i needed to be really careful with budget for that because they brought me on board after the show was sold and budget was done. I needed to stick with what they had financially, and available gear in Europe during the summer with all the big festivals and tours. Happily, Pixel Light was able to provide us with all our needs regarding lights and high-speed motors etc.. In Brazil, Luan's team was in the middle of the tour—Luan is very busy with average of four shows per week. The team was working hard to make all happen on time, plus there were different arrangements for some songs and the three brand-new ones, so the band had to rehearse during the tour to have everything ready for show time in Portugal. Thanks to Peixola, Luan's musical director, who did an amazing job with the logistics and the entire band. After months of hard work, we all finally came together in the same room in Lisbon and we delivered the show.
LD: What do you like best about this production and why?
KT: Working with Luan is amazing, I love his vision and style! He sings, performs, plays multiple instruments, composes and more. He likes to have a great stage and lighting design and the best effects the money can buy, making him a pioneer with major productions for country singers in Brazil, bringing new technologies to the Brazilian market like the lift toaster in the early 2000's and recently kinetic lights and more, he always looks for what is new and bring to his fans the best spectacular live experience. He is the real deal and his team was really the best. I'm American but I was born in Brazil, so it was nice to be home closer to my family and working with Brazilian folks
LD: How does your design communicate the music to the audience?
KT: I had an art installation made by using famous Portuguese tiles with Luan Santana's picture on it to bring some of the Portuguese culture to the show. Also we had every member of the audience wear an LED bracelet from YIUW. This way the audience can interact with the show's color palate and bits of the song. The audience really loved it. When the show was over and Luan had an encore, right before the music started again, I had those bracelets blink like a heartbeat that goes faster and faster until the music starts, and the audience really loved that. Also, I designed the whole stage in a way where the audience can see Luan as close as possible with the bridge, the center stage, and main stage going as close as possible to the bleachers left and right.
