'Nessun dorma' by Chen Yifei - iGuzzini

The romantic Chinese Adam Yu is a keen operalover,
and particularly fond of Giacomo Puccini.
A few years ago, Yu decided to commission the artist Chen Yifei to create the largest Chinese lacquer inspired by Turandot, Giacomo Puccini's last and unfinished opera, famous especially for its great tenor aria 'Nessun dorma'. The painting employs the traditional technique of Chinese lacquer. Constituted of 288 pieces like mosaic, the work stands 40 metres high and 15 metres wide, completely occupying one side of the wall of the atrium in the Winland International Finance Center, a multipurpose building.

The lacquer was unveiled on April 25th 2008, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Tuscan composer's birth and exact date of the 82nd birthday of the premiere of Turandot in La Scala de Milan. The painting captures 12 key moments in Turandot. The lighting was conceived with the intention both of focusing on certain scenes, and of portraying the opera in its totality, or revealing it piece by piece.

Given its complexity, the operation called for the creation of a special product, developed by iGuzzini, that would allow the combination of bright light sources and optical assemblies capable of being integrated and aggregated with the end view of illuminating the work in its entirety. The fixture that emerged uses 50W low voltage dichroic light sources with cone widths of 4° and 8° and a colour temperature of 3000 K, all of which is dimmable. The specially made fixture consists of an assembly of long and narrow rectangular structures, designed to house the light sources.

Each single rectangular element is mounted to an arm that can be inclined vertically up to an angle of 30° by steps of one degree. The output is essentially a wave of light, but with different final effects obtainable by means of directional adjustments. The structures are angled individually and locked in position mechanically. The entire installation is managed by a single control system. Lighting design, scenographies and the lighting fitting design were thought and developed by 8'18'' engaged by the client.

The design of the fixture was finalised in close cooperation by the client, 8'18'' and iGuzzini. In recognition of Mr. Yu's contribution in promoting opera art, Puccini Festival Foundation bestowed, in collaboration with the Italian Government, the 'Gran Pucciniano' award upon him, which is set up by the Foundation to honour music lovers the world over with a special devotion to Puccini.

[taken from Incontroluce #22. For the full article, visit http://www.iguzzini.com/html/en/iguzzini-incontroluce-download.html]

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• nessun dorma
• turandot
• iguzzini
• Georges Berne
• lao bei
• museum lighting