Apprentice Scenes Lighting Design
Santa Fe Opera – 2022
Lucia di Lammermoor
Directed by: Ken Cazan
Ariadne auf Naxos
Directed by: Crystal Manich
Suor Angelica
Directed by: Kathleen Clawson
L'Italiana in Algeri
Directed by: Jim Robinson
Photos by: Tira Howard
In the Apprentice program at Santa Fe Opera, I designed scenes from four different operas. With a turnover as tight as a week, I immediately began researching and translating the scripts and meeting with directors to give more context of the tone per scene. Some directors wanted to focus on the dramatization, as opera lighting is known for evoking much more emotion in its audience. Other directors wanted to focus on a more playful and joyous mood, since Ariadne auf Naxos and L'Italiana in Algeri was much more of a farce.
Since there would be no time to make light cues with the actors onstage, I essentially had to design backwards. I was given the rep plot and magic sheet, and I was to determine what specials and lighting systems I wanted to utilize and prefocus before cueing. The rest of the lighting team and I would then preset the stage, and I would have one hour to cue all four designs that would hopefully catch the vision that the directors had in mind.
The final result was exactly what the directors imagined, and the design enhanced the costumes and emotion that was shared onstage.
