The Snow Queen stage seen from the auditorium, strands of white light falling between the timber walls with the cast spread across the boards

Royal Danish Opera ‘The Snow Queen’

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The Royal Danish Theatre’s fairytale LED lighting

ENTTEC collaborates with the Royal Danish Opera, using their lighting solutions to create a multidimensional sensory experience for The Snow Queen – an interpretation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.

The Royal Danish Theatre have staged the first ever production of a newly-written opera, The Snow Queen – an interpretation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairytale by one of Denmark’s most eminent composers, Hans Abrahamsen. Production director Francisco Negrin wanted to create a multidimensional sensory experience. Conventional lighting by renowned designers Bruno Poet and Matt Daw was used in collaboration with an LED lighting installation by Spanish audiovisual studio Playmodes, known for their architectural lighting designs. ENTTEC Pixelators and the Pixel Link system were chosen to control an innovative and immersive light show. Pre-production, conceptual design-making and rendering between the artistic team and the Royal Danish Theatre took roughly two years, followed by two weeks of physical LED lighting installation and a further two weeks of on-site programming. The net result was an innovative and immersive audiovisual experience that changes the perception of what an opera can be.

Solution

Controls

Powered by 10 x Pixelators, 172 x PLink Injectors

Lights

Lit up by 155,000 LED Pixels

Hand-drawn diagram of the control chain, a laptop running mapping software into two rack-mounted Pixelators, then PLink injectors out to 155,000 LED pixels
Stig Debois  of Project Manager at The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen

ENTTEC’s products were by far the most operationally secure and stable available. With a super effective and fast support system on any issues we might have had, ENTTEC has been the best possible hardware partner in The Snow Queen project.

Stig Debois Project Manager at The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen

Result

  • A technician at a workshop bench soldering a lit blue LED strip, his face lit by the pixels, magnifier headband on
  • Crew on a scissor lift and a ladder fitting LED battens to a tall black grid frame in the rehearsal hall
  • Looking along the raked timber set panels with thin pixel strips picked out in white, green, teal and red
  • Two crew tilting a large steel grid frame off the floor, injectors already mounted along its ribs
  • A gold-costumed singer with arms raised above a black gable, the word EVIGHEDEN spelled in light and blue pixel strips behind
  • Two performers on the timber set among paper stars, one in a floral dress, one in a pale tutu with a raised blade
  • A white-faced performer leaning over a woman lying on the stage floor, thin blue pixel lines behind them
  • Three crowned performers reclining on the floor while pink, purple and yellow light streaks cross the stage
  • A dark-costumed figure cradling another downstage, the pastel-dressed chorus behind under green light and a cluster of pinpoint stars
  • Wide dark stage with a lone singer high in a lit frame, two performers talking downstage right, strings of tiny lights falling
  • The chorus lined up across the front of the stage in striped coats, blue pixel lines and a warm constellation overhead
  • Two singers holding each other centre stage, tall vertical pixel strips running white on either side
  • Production key art, the title Snedronningen set diagonally in white on black beside a performer in a silver headdress

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