|
 The Royal Opera House’s new production of La forza del destino at Covent Garden began at the end of October.
Le Maitre was asked to create some effects for the production using some of the more traditional pyrotechnics that they manufacture.
In the first scene of the opera, the lover throws his pistol on a table where it goes off mortally wounding the girl’s father. Le Maitre’s Tim Haddon used Non-Fragmenting Microdets for the gunshot effect. A Microdet is a small explosive charge used to simulate a bullet in a cardboard casing, which allows it to be used in close proximity to actors on a stage.
The second act is set on the battlefield and features cannons, pistols and rifles. Giant and Large Theatrical Flashes were used for the cannons, and Gunflash for the pistols. The effects were controlled using the versatile Surefire Wireless pyro controller. The pyrotechnics selected for the second act were all silent effects, to create the visual of a battlefield without any noise to distract from the singing, which continues throughout.
|