Ariadne auf Naxos

TASK

At each of the three different venues within the theater, the audience should be able to participate in the other two performances. Video was to make this possible and, in the process, allow several narrative levels to emerge. In this way, the theater was to become an immersive experience of a journey through time.

Martin G. Berger staged "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal (libretto) at the German National Theater in Weimar in 2020. The opera became the winner of the German Theater Prize DER FAUST, highlighting the video performance in the laudation.

The content of the work demanded a simultaneous playing of different performances. It was dramaturgically translated by parallel performances at three different locations within the theater. The audience, however, could only watch at one of these locations, but should still be able to participate in the other performances. This meant each venue had to be recorded live and played out live in each of the other two venues.

By immersing the audience in several venues and parallel actions, an immersion in the play was to be created and an intensive experience of a journey through time was to be achieved.

Technically, this presented a complex challenge for the theater's video team, which chose MXWendler in 2006.

SOLUTION

Three MXWendler FXServers were installed at the venues and connected via NDI (Network Device Interface). This allowed the live videos to be streamed and mapped to the other venues via network.

This resulted in three shows in one and thus three technical solutions at three different venues.

For the first part, a video was projected at one venue and mapped to a segmented wall using StageDesigner.

For the second part, one FXServer was installed at each of the three venues. Each media server acted as an NDI server for a live camera and also played out the live footage from the cameras over different media.

The third part took place exclusively on stage and was a live Netflix production. For this, 3 live cameras with radio link were used. In the process, 150 cuts were broadcast in 20 min, which were scripted to music.

In addition, the camerapersonnel received acoustic instructions from the FXServer about the next action and position via in-ear monitoring.

Video and streaming via NDI enabled multiple narrative layers to be told and visualized in this work. This, along with the engaging effect of video (projections), created an immersive experience in the theater, transporting the audience on a journey back to 1916, the year the work was created.

The production is the winner of the German Theater Award DER FAUST 2020 in the category "Direction Musical Theater". In the laudation, the successful implementation of video within the production was particularly mentioned.

Applications

FXServer
Multi-Monitor-Configuration
EDID Management
NDI

StageDesigner-FX
Playlist
Keystone

Credits

Dominik Beykirch (Musical Lead)
Martin G. Berger (Director)
Sarah-Katharina Karl (Stage)
Alexander Djurkov Hotter (Costumes)
Roman Rehor (Live-Video)
Andreas Günther (who-be) (Videotechnics)
Lisa Mayer (Dramaturgy)

Candy Welz (Photography)