A show within a show. Staged for six nights at the Royal Albert Hall in London, it has become a truly immersive event in which sounds, lights and special effects fuse together to engage the audience, making them part of the show. Organized by Raymond Gubbay Ltd, Classical Spectacular certainly did not disappoint the participants, many of whom had bought tickets months in advance for one of the six events.
John Rigby conducted the baritone Nicholas Lester, the tenor Marc Heller and over 200 members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society at a cultural event which was not to be missed thanks to the by now well-known format first established by Raymond Gubbay in 1989.
The composer had planned the use of lights not as a supplementary effect but as a cornerstone of the show, in which classical music acquires communicative power thanks to the new generation pyrotechnics, lasers and other visual representations, including thousands of colourful balloons that rained on the audience at the end of the exhibition while The Royal Choral Society sang the national anthem. And during “Land of Hope & Glory”, the Union Jack was projected around various parts of the majestic hall, using the Clay Paky Mythos. The 9 English flag gobos were commissioned to GoboService by LCR Light Control Rigging in London and the resulting projection honoured the patriotic spirit so dear to the British.
Copyright of the photographs
Paul Sanders – Courtesy of Raymond Gubbay Ltd
