Dragon de lumière – Illumination of the Nessun Dorma Mural
The intense passion of opera helped materialize this astonishing Chinese mural;
The sunlit atrium of the Winland International Financial Center abounded with operatic nostalgia;
Chen Yifei’s orchestra completed this grand masterpiece;
French lighting designer Georges Berne accepted this challenge with the utmost confidence;
Illuminated by lights, The painting’s colors revealed their unrivaled splendor.
Georges Berne
A Conversation Through Monologue
Adam Yu
“One goes to Paris to see the Mona Lisa, and to Beijing to see Nessun Dorma,” is what Nobel-prize laureate Robert Mundell once said to me. Was this pure coincidence, or fated? Many years ago, the Louvre in Paris entrusted a French lighting designer with the task of illuminating Da Vinci’s luminary painting. Little did I know that lighting designer was none other than Georges Berne. By the time I first encountered him in Beijing, he had agreed to take on the challenge of doing the lighting design for our Turandot mural.
Georges Berne
I was captivated by this monumental mural. Standing in front of it, I could get a feel for its color scheme, princess Turandot basking in splendid colors, the story behind the painting, the countless metaphors contained within the work, and the spirit the work expresses.
Adam Yu
I wanted to come up with the ideal spotlight toolkit for the work Nessun Dorma, a method of lighting that would retain the work’s immutable beauty. To this end, I needed to look for someone who could accept this challenge and find solutions for the technical problems involved, who at the same time was an artist able to do this mural’s beauty justice. None of the lighting designers I met prior to Georges came up with satisfactory proposals. I started to think we couldn’t pull off this brainchild of mine. As I saw it, the successful outcome of lighting the painting would be contingent on a combination of clutch professional expertise and the ability to convey emotion.
Georges Berne
My first visit to China.
On my first visit to Beijing, I explained my thoughts concerning the lighting plan for this mural, i.e. how to avoid the pitfalls involved in lighting this artwork, as well as how to deal with the problem of the glaring reflected light causing the mural’s exterior to appear in a way that would be perceived by spectators as insatisfactory.
On my first visit to Beijing, I explained my thoughts concerning the lighting plan for this mural, i.e. how to avoid the pitfalls involved in lighting this artwork, as well as how to deal with the problem of the glaring reflected light causing the mural’s exterior to appear in a way that would be perceived by spectators as insatisfactory.
Adam Yu
The mural’s colors change drastically depending on the viewing angle, the angle of the incoming sunlight at different times of the day, or the lighting angle. I was convinced that artificial lighting would add to the work’s splendor: once, while flying past the Mont Blanc, under the light of the setting sun, I could feel that the sunlight’s alternating shades of brightness made natural landscapes appear more majestic. I was hopeful that similar changes in brightness would make the lifelike emotions of Turandot contained in the mural as well as its gentle, stirring details come out nicely. I ended up describing this idea to Georges.
Georges Berne
We deliberated in detail in order to not only get to know ourselves but also princess Turandot better.
This resulted in a first lighting plan, then through further communication we did a lighting design study, after which various short-lived lighting ideas eventually led to us develop a second lighting plan.
This resulted in a first lighting plan, then through further communication we did a lighting design study, after which various short-lived lighting ideas eventually led to us develop a second lighting plan.
Adam Yu
The gleaming gold in the painting, as well as the fiercely blazing reds and magnificent blues, all go through myriad changes depending on the different times of day. Their tonality alternates between pronounced or faint. However, the more intense the lightbeams the weaker the chromatic contrast, which in the Chinese aesthetic has distinct metaphysical overtones.
After nightfall, we found the the artificial lightbeams were not up to snuff: the mural itself heavily reflected the incoming light. Even the faintest searchlights created spots on the painting.
During our first encounter, Georges had pointed out to us that large-scale searchlights would be of no use whatsoever, and that all we needed were very minimal lightbeams in order to achieve optimal results. He mounted a smaller size search light, which worked miraculously well.
Georges Berne
We had a six month deadline for this project. The objective, or challenge rather, was to hold the concert on April 25, 2018, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s as well as the 82nd anniversary of the debut performance of Turandot. It was also the occasion on which the grand mural entitled Nessun Dorma was to be unveiled to the public.
In the daytime, natural light coming through the glass illuminated the mural. However, this turned out too bright due to the building’s layout. When lit up by heavy sunlight, it was even less optimal, and the entire mural ended up getting ‘repressed’ by the heavy contrast and the swelling of the light. When night fell, the artificial light shining into the atrium distorted the work. This was due to the contrast of the work being in a dark place, while it was meant to be steeped in sufficient light.
Adam Yu
I very quickly became aware that Georges Berne was the person we were looking for. He had a deep love for this mural, which became apparent in the poems he had written about it. His understanding of this mural far exceeded that of anyone in my own team, to the point that among the those involved in each stage [of the mural’s creation], no one understood and studied this mural more thoroughly than he did.
Georges Berne
First of all, we focused our attention at minimizing the amount of reflected light, and the original brightness of the mural. Owing to the diversity in the materials and techniques used for this painting, the surface of the work wasn’t flat, nor was it evenly distributed.
We carried out a lengthy two-dimensional and cross-section study on the placement of the [lighting] equipment. In our draft proposal, we defined the perimeters concerning the possibilities, dimensions, directions and configuration of the equipment’s positioning. The optimal placement ended up being opposite the mural, at the south side directly facing this lacquer-painted mural.
In order to keep the light from getting reflected, the [lighting] equipment could only be aimed upward, downward, to the right and to the left very slightly. Theoretically speaking, that meant lighting equipment had to be dispersed along the entire width and height of the south wall.
In order to avoid the light’s reflection, indirect lighting had to be used, meaning it had to be projected upward ever so slightly, potentially causing the viewing angle to be more optimal on the lower floors.
However, for spectators leaning against the railings in the corridor, the line of sight would always be aimed at a higher spot, i.e. Turandot’s cheeks.
To avoid light from being reflected, the light beams had to be very concentrated, and the various viewing spots in the main venue as well as to the side had to be taken into account. The beam angle couldn’t be greater than 10%. As soon as the light beam was widened, it had the potential of casting reflected light onto the corridor. In fact, there was already some light reflection, but it remained limited to the open spaces in the atrium.
In fact, I hadn’t yet noticed princess Turandot’s eyes. The reflected light was needed to bring them to the audience’s attention.
Adam Yu
During the creation of the mural, I was involved in much of the painter Chen Yifei’s creative decision-making. He approved of many of the suggestions I brought to the table. I gave Georges far more leeway, since he’s a specialist at his trade. At the time we couldn’t have guessed that our collaboration would end up being so intimate, and that we would end up needing such a long time to complete this lighting project, given our constant thirst for perfection.
Georges Berne
We proposed a peculiar piece of lighting equipment, which was small in size, and shrunk down to its most simple form. The lighting equipment, whose light source had a diameter of only 11 centimeters, had a power of only 65 watt. Its average luminous efficacy was 20 lumens/watt. The challenge lay in taking a modest approach to this monumental work of art, yet having to illuminate a surface area of 40 meters high by 15 meters wide...
A peculiar light source that’s very low-key: optically controllable, and perceptually effective. From beginning to end, this corresponded with our initial concern of being able to control the reflected light.
Although individually tiny in size, once a bunch of these searchlights were grouped together, they could ‘cover’ the entire surface of the mural.
Adam Yu
I still remember our initial on-site tests, for which we used only two searchlights. We only used 2 out of 500 in order to light up this monumental and imposing structure.
Georges Berne
As we aimed the lightsources at the artwork, we tried to not have them shine onto the stone frames, whose lighter colors stood out too much. We also had to achieve an optimal color temperature for the light, which couldn’t be too warm nor too cold (3200 K), a superb color rendering (IRC 100), while keeping a record of different levels of illumination intensity, as well as an optimal light uniformity.
A subtle but highly exquisite light source, despite being hidden from sight, lit up the artwork indirectly via a polyhedral parabolic mirror, thus producing a concentrated beam of precisely 8°. The resulting light beam could be aimed with sufficient accuracy, with barely led to any visible ‘overflow’.
We needed to achieve an oval-shaped light beam of several meters in diameter and several Lux light beams, while having to place the lighting equipment at a distance of 28 meters from the mural.
These light beams brought out a sense of pixelation in the artwork, allowing us to create any configuration of distance between the twelve scenes or cloud patterns that make up the Nessun Dorma painting.
Adam Yu
Georges Berne and I were both enamored by this work. Through a lighting set-up whose form was similar to that of flowing water and which relied on ingenious lighting principles, we managed to highlight the touching scenes contained within the painting, vividly bring to life the original colors of the work, and reveal its profound significance. We discovered we had inadvertently cracked the code of the artwork’s beauty.
During our two-year collaboration, we were overcome with great joy, and we hope the memories of this period of time can linger on. With each step, George, all the people involved in the project and myself reminisced on this lengthy process of deliberation and creation, and informed people on the implied meanings of the lighting plan, as well as my wish to pass these ideas on to others.
During our two-year collaboration, we were overcome with great joy, and we hope the memories of this period of time can linger on. With each step, George, all the people involved in the project and myself reminisced on this lengthy process of deliberation and creation, and informed people on the implied meanings of the lighting plan, as well as my wish to pass these ideas on to others.
Georges Berne
Over a period of more than two years, I visited Beijing several times. In the five to ten days I’d usually stay there, I would stand in front of Nessun Dorma and interrogate Turandot, but I was never able to foresee which emotions this long-awaited lighting project would bring with it...
I’ve spoken and written about it, I’m very grateful and would like to thank you all for placing your trust in me.
I’ve spoken and written about it, I’m very grateful and would like to thank you all for placing your trust in me.
The final lighting plan ended up being titled Dragon de lumière – Nessun Dorma: Light for the Princess’ Enjoyment Only.
