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Robe helps shows go on at Lviv National Opera

Lviv National Opera has been investing in Robe moving lights over the last five years and now has sixteen Robe Tarrantula large LED wash beams and twenty-two T1 Profiles, which are among 146 moving lights in total available in the house rig.

Located on Freedom Avenue in central Lviv, Ukraine, the opera house was designed by Polish architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski and constructed between 1897 and 1900. It is now a primary European cultural and performance hub, known for innovative opera and ballet productions.

Lighting director Oleksandr Mezentsev (pictured) has worked at the venue for the last five years, and he lights and oversees the lighting of all its productions. In many ways, this has been an atypical tenure as he joined the team there during the height of the Covid pandemic, which has been followed by the full-scale war that has been raging since 2022.

Like most Ukrainian theatres, Lviv National Opera returned to work within two months of the war starting in 2022, and despite the constant threat of Russian missile and drone attacks, is now back to operating a full annual schedule, including three to five premieres per season, plus assorted revivals, totalling approximately 200 operas and ballets. 

It is a vital part of a network of Ukrainian performance institutions that have been providing much needed relief during tough times, when creativity, invention and artistic expression remain defiant, while the demand for tickets is through the roof. The Robe fixtures have been arriving in smaller numbers - six or eight at a time - for most of this recent challenging period, supplied via Odesa-based distributor Lightek.

“We’ve basically purchased the fixtures according to the needs of the different incoming productions”, explains Mezentsev. The technical production for all of these has been fully sourced and produced in house. The T1 Profiles came first. They are positioned in the overhead rig in upstage positions and are also rigged on some of the FOH bars.

When it came to adding an LED wash light onboard, they wanted to match the colours of the T1s, so another Robe product was a logical choice, and Tarrantulas were picked. The stage area is twelve metres square, and the Tarrantulas are positioned on the upstage ring of lights.

Both the T1s and the Tarrantulas are used for every show produced in the main house and Mezentsev says that they have made a “huge positive difference” to the daily tasks for him and his lighting department of ten. He was familiar with Robe products already before starting at Lviv National Opera, along with a number of other brands. “Robe now covers all the needs of any performance environment”, he notes. 

Lviv National Opera’s relationship with Lightek dates back around twenty years now. CEO Oleg Kaminker and the team there “keep us informed of the latest and most appropriate tech when it becomes available and are always on hand”, says Mezentsev. While the opera house mainly works with Ukrainian creative teams right now, internationals are sometimes invited to collaborate on the production side.

Lviv National Opera is currently in the process of transitioning to LED stage lighting, but right now the inventory is a mix of these, discharge and incandescent sources. The Opera has managed to retain a relatively regular schedule with some adaptations. Around 600 people are working there, including all the creative and technical crews, FOH and administration, marketing and promotion staff, as well as full companies for the opera and ballet performances and a resident orchestra.

(Photos: Gate Agency/Even Kraws/Lviv National Opera/Ruslan Lytvyn/Yuriy Malenko/Gregry Vepryk/Hryhorii Vepryk/Kravs Yevheniy)

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