Some of the 3-D technology being tested at a workshop in Quebec.
By DANIEL J. WAKIN and STEVE LOHR
Published: February 15, 2011
Purveyors of entertainment, in the ever-urgent quest to grab audiences’ attention, have used 3-D imagery in movies and, more recently, television. Now it is coming to live theater.
Richard Termine for The New York Times
Robert Lepage, who is directing the Met’s “Ring” cycle.
In a rare case (at least in modern times) of technical innovation born on the opera stage, the Metropolitan Opera said it planned to introduce 3-D projections for its production of “Siegfried” next season, the third installment in its new “Ring” cycle, directed by Robert Lepage.
If the technology works as advertised, the singers will appear to move inside a three-dimensional world created by projections. But tuxedo-clad operagoers will not face the indignity of wearing goofy 3-D glasses. The creators say that the complex mathematical formulas used to create the three-dimensional effect will obviate the need for glasses.
The technology was developed for Mr. Lepage, the Canadian stage and opera director. His “Ring” is the most technologically intricate production yet put on the Met stage. The scenery consists largely of sophisticated projections cast onto a 45-ton set composed of two dozen giant planks that rotate on a single axis and move up and down.
For years, digital artists, computer programmers and lighting experts have worked to project lifelike imagery on stage. Few people have seen samples of the new technology, and it has been tested only on scale models of the set.
But according to those who have worked on it and witnessed it, the new technology represents a notable advance in the richness of detail, shadows and shading in the images projected, and the ability of the images to move and interact with singers and actors on the set.
“I’ve been in this business for 35 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Roger Parent, the president of Réalisations, the Montreal company that is supplying the digital technology for the “Ring” productions. “You get a realistic sense of 3-D without the drawbacks, without the glasses.”
Mr. Parent said he planned to use the technology in his company’s other work: creating digital effects for Cirque du Soleil and for theatrical productions, and in architectural and interior settings. “But I want to make sure the Met has the first bang,” he added.
Olivier Goulet, the president of Geodezik, a multimedia company that creates video special effects for stage shows, including those for pop stars like Justin Timberlake and Pink, saw a demonstration and came away impressed. He plans to use it, he said, in work he is doing for a rock group, which he declined to name. For example, Mr. Goulet said, a singer might walk up a tilted stage and would appear to be trekking up an imaginary 3-D mountain or through a splashing waterfall.
Its use at the Met, so far, will be limited to forest scenes in “Siegfried.” It will not be employed in the final work of Wagner’s cycle, “Götterdämmerung.” Inevitably, it will give more ammunition to Wagnerites and critics who view Mr. Lepage’s sophisticated electronics as a distraction from the drama and the music.
Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said the 3-D effect only “adds to the visual elements” of Mr. Lepage’s “Ring.” Mr. Gelb said he was sensitive to the perception that technology was driving the “artistic product.” In this case, Mr. Gelb asserted, “technology is in the service of art.”
Mr. Lepage could not be reached for comment. Despite repeated efforts to contact him through the Met’s press office, he did not respond to requests for an interview.
“Siegfried” will not be opera’s first foray into 3-D technology. A Royal Opera House high-definition production of Bizet’s “Carmen,” filmed in traditional 3-D, is due for widespread release in movie theaters on March 5. In that case, 3-D glasses are required.
The “Ring” technology works quite differently from that used in 3-D films. In movies, two images shot from different perspectives are projected on the screen. Light and color filters in the glasses allow one image into each eye, and the brain reconciles the two into a 3-D image.
For its visual sleight of hand, the 3-D technology being deployed at the Met will also interact with the movement of the set. The set uses a bank of projectors, motion-capture cameras and computers to fashion the images. The tilt on the stage allows for hundreds of different projections, changing in slivers of a second, at the different depths to help create, say, the color, shading and contour of a rock, or at least to convince the eye.
The imagery is rendered in realistic detail using fractals: fractured geometric shapes that keep iterating reduced-size copies of themselves according to mathematical formulas. When the fractals are programmed into the computerized light system, the result is a dense symphony of geometric detail, giving the illusion of three dimensions.
The computer engineer who designed the technology is Catalin Alexandru Duru, 26, whose company, Maginaire, licensed it to Réalisations.
“We can fool the brain into thinking it is 3-D,” Mr. Duru said. “It’s very believable.”
Via New York Times
