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Blackout Jazzes Up Henri Salvador Set
Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout has collaborated with set designer, Alain Lenchampt to help realise the set for French superstar Henri Salvador’s recent tour. The tour celebrated 70 years of the jazz/cabaret crooner’s illustrious career.
The tour covered all France’s main cities, starting with performances at the Palais de Congres in Paris, attended by over 3800 fans at night, and sealing his reputation as a truly adored singer.
Blackout France’s project manager, Damien Slaney, headed up their team and was responsible for designing and supplying a massive 27 metre x 9 metre drop cyclorama, which played a central role in the set design. Fabricated out of ecru-filled cloth at Blackout’s UK headquarters in South London, it divided the set between a jazz combo downstage centre and a 40-piece orchestra behind.
Offering a huge semi-circular blank canvas, the cyc was used by lighting designer Alain Lenchampt to create a stunning barrage of lighting of effects for the show’s opening sequence, building excitement and setting the mood for the evening. Additionally, it was central to the climax of the reveal of Salvador’s orchestra.
Blackout France’s team under-slung the cloth from curved 50 mm aluminium tubing, suspended from the main curved truss. A second bar of curved tube weighted the cloth held into its curved semi-circular position.
To create the reveal sequence, 28 solenoids in line were used to trigger the Kabuki drop. The cyclorama was fabricated in two pieces overlapping centrally, which after the reveal of the orchestra allowed its evacuation stage left and stage right.
Blackout also supplied and rigged their innovative LED STARled starcloth for the upstage backdrop. It provided a dazzling, ultra-bright, galaxy-like effect throughout the show, pulsing, chasing and strobing - perfectly complementing the production lighting.
“We really enjoyed working on Henri’s tour, and working with Alain Lechampt and the team at TS3 once again was a great experience,” said Damien Slaney. “We were faced with a number of logistical challenges and a tight timeframe, but as usual the British and French teams pulled together to ensure timely delivery and quality of service for which Blackout are renowned the world over.”
18th May 2004
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