Presented at the Royal Albert Hall twice a year and in arenas worldwide by Raymond Gubbay Limited Classical Spectacular was a Son-et-Lumiere with Orchestra, Choir, Lasers, Lights and Fireworks; the show toured throughout the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and Australia. March 2019 saw the 30th Anniversary of Classical Spectacular and Durham had lit the show for all thirty of those years since November 1989!
Lighting in the past years was programmed in the virtual world of WYSIWYG and operated by Pedro Marcé Socias, the lighting equipment was supplied by rental company LCR. The lasers were supplied by Definitive Lasers, the sound by RG Jones with indoor fireworks from JustFX and Production management by Chromatic Productions. 500 lighting cues were presented during each show and a different lighting truss architecture was designed by Durham for each season.
The first shows had an all par can rig and were pre-programmed in London's Dockland Arena, we then used the first Vari~Lites outside of Rock and Roll and moved onto virtual programming with WYSIWYG. Eventually we had an all moving light rig with one par can focused on the conductor as a standby should the unthinkable happen!
Unfortunately due to Covid-19 changing the audience attendance of the event post pandemic the show returned for one season only in March 2022 then it was decided that Classical Spectacular would not be returning to the Royal Albert Hall, sadly missed by all the many crew and audience who witnessed the Spectacle!
Photo credits
Photos courtesy of Raymond Gubbay Limited
