Producciones Yllana captures the swirl of emotions and music that surrounded Niccolò Paganini’s life in “Maestrissimo,” a 90-minute show that is being performed before very limited, socially distant audiences in Spain. Weaving together the action and music on stage, while also making performers comfortable in near-empty venues, is an immersive three-universe, 150-fixture lightshow created by Fernando Rodriguez Berzosa.
A longtime ChamSys user, Berzosa programmed his show on a MagicQ with a PCWing. He is running the show at venues throughout Spain on his MagicQ MQ80, and notes that the compact size of this console makes it an ideal traveling companion.
“Nowadays I always use a ChamSys for any project I am involved in,” said Berzosa. “My reason is simple: dependability. I can’t afford to have a console fail; that is why I always depend on my ChamSys. There are many other things I love about the ChamSys consoles, like how logical and user-friendly they are, but things always have to begin with dependability. This was my first show after the long lockdown, and it was comforting to have the MQ80 with me.”
Like the life and music of Paganini itself, the Maestrissimo moves fearlessly through intense mood changes. Drama gives way to a comedic moment at one point, while frantic action settles into a soft contemplative scene the next. Being able to run his show smoothly has been essential to Berzosa, who praised the user-friendly features of his MQ80 with its 12-inch display.
“The Plan View Grids in the output window that allow you to have multiple Grid Plan Views to divide up a lighting grid views are very useful when you have so many elements in your show,” said Berzosa. “It is easy for me to simplify things by using the buttons and encoders to change brightness levels and colors for fixtures by groups, especially since I had so many things going on. Also, having the faders and encoders arranged around the touchscreen is very convenient.”
Berzosa was also happy that his console allows him to adjust the fade time of each instrument’s parameters, color mix, pan and tilt – as well as every beam function – individually by using the Time Window.
While running his show, Berzosa keeps the four performers on stage in mind. “The people I am lighting are not actors, but professional and accomplished violinists,” he said. “They are comfortable playing music on stage, not acting. I use the lighting to help them remember positions. I wanted them to feel the light. Communicating with light is something I have missed doing for many months, and it is wonderful to be back, even before a small audience.”
