At Bosco Maregno, in provincial northeastern Italy, the owners of a well-known ballroom recently inaugurated Luna Rossa, an upmarket club attracting discerning clients from Alessandria and the nearby provinces of Genoa, Pavia, Asti, and Milan. Mike, the club's art director (known only by his first name), explains, "The venue, designed by Guerino Barci, one of Italy's best-known club architects, is one of the most attractive high-class venues in the area."
Once past the huge eye-catching towers at the entrance, the overall feel of the club is typically Mediterranean, with white walls, porticos, and arches. Surrounded by attractive gardens, the club is a tasty combination of marble, stucco work, cobblestones, terra cotta, tiled patios, and huge white parasols. Indoors, the main room has table service, not often found in clubs this size, but there's also plenty of room for the clubbers to dance under carefully-chosen lighting and sound. Controlled by a Light Processor Q Commander, the rig includes High End Systems Studio Spot® MSD 250s and Omniscan scanners by Italy's Programmi & Sistemi Luce.
Mike says, "Work by specialist artisans at the venue include murals reproducing scenes by Italian masters such as Michelangelo—our clientele appreciates these touches and are respectful of our decor and furnishing." The main room's feeling of opulence is further emphasized by the mosaic-covered columns and scatter cushions on the seating around the glass-topped tables. Two more rooms on the first floor open during the winter season: In the Disco Bar, the accent is on "happy sounds" with a soul, funky and jazz-tinged slant while the Privée (the Italian equivalent of a VIP room) is dedicated to 70s and 80s sounds. Luna Rossa has an indoor capacity of approximately 2,000, which almost doubles when the outdoor is open during summer months.
As Gianni Micele of lighting and audio installers New York Music Centre (Milan) explains, "The glass doors are removed around the indoor areas, so anybody looking for the bright lights and oomph of disco nights just needs to step away from the pool and taste the results of our install. The High End Systems units were chosen because they're number one as far as I'm concerned and Programmi & Sistemi Luce scanners because they have a really excellent quality-to-price ratio—we saw that the same features were offered by similar units by larger, perhaps better-known manufacturers, but at a higher price, so the choice was based on pure business sense. The Omniscans on the main floor are four HQI 150 powered fixtures and four MSD 250s. Dimmers are almost all Spanish Elan units throughout (distributed in Italy by PSL) as are the controllers, apart from the Q Commander on the main floor, the Omniscans' dedicated controllers, and a set of Coemar dimmers on one floor where we needed more power capacity than the Elan units could give."
Mike concludes "The next stage in Luna Rossa's plans is an eatery in 2002, but at present our clients appreciate a really classy club with well-selected music and special theme nights, plus an assortment of lighting and sound hardware up to Luna Rossa standards."