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ANDREA BOCELLI’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY To celebrate three decades of performing on some of the world’s biggest stages, the famed maestro put on a three-night hometown concert with the stunning backdrop of the Tuscan skyline. Speaking to TPi, FOH Engineer, Davide Lombardi reflects on the unique project…
Words: Stew Hume Photos: STUFISH Entertainment Architects and Lorenzo Montanelli
When performers put on an anniversary hometown show to celebrate a notable milestone, you often see them head back to a small venue in which they got their start. However, when Andrea Bocelli looked to celebrate his 30th anniversary of his career, he turned the ‘hometown show’ on its head – instead, opting to create a stunning temporary venue in the hills of Tuscany not too far from his local village. STUFISH Entertainment Architects designed the stage, debuting a large kinetic art sculpture, encapsulating the themes of time, place, and Bocelli’s personal and musical journey. The three nights of performances also welcomed a star-studded ensemble including Shania Twain, Ed Sheeran, Brian May, Zucchero, Johnny Depp, and Russell Crowe, as well as the biggest names in classical such as Plácido Domingo and José Carreras. Alongside guests, 58 musicians from the orchestra, four house band members and a 40-piece choir featured on stage. Responsible for handling the audio delivery for this intimating line-up was Davide Lombardi. Having last caught up with Lombardi while he
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was mixing for Roxy Music’s 50th-anniversary tour, this was certainly a different setting to find the engineer. The first thing we discovered was that this project was a certainly more ‘involved’ project for Lombardi. “I was brought on in early April and asked not only to mix but to be the Audio Manager of the event. This meant creating a sound design, planning the monitoring system, interacting with the orchestra, house band, and conductor as well as being the sound representative for the broadcast recording and every guest who performed with Andrea Bocelli.” Early in the process, Lombardi explained how there was a close collaboration with STUFISH and the show designers as they discussed the “harmonious integration” of audio within the design. “Finding this harmony was the main challenge,” commented Lombardi. “Every single detail had to be thought through in advance, doing as much as we could on DWG files as the risk of forgetting small fine points was high.” The location of the event also created some interesting stumbling blocks due to the shape
of the hill where it was taking place, which meant it was not possible to run cables underneath the stage or on the stage where dancers and performers needed a clear path. “The backstage area had limited space for the sound equipment which was allocated into two containers,” added Lombardi. “An additional challenge was represented by the hostile environment with unfriendly dust and high degree heat dominating our days.” The audio equipment for this testing project came courtesy of Agorá that supplied a comprehensive L-Acoustics PA. To cover the entire crowd, Lombardi designated the area into four distinctive sections. The first covered the first five rows and was handled by four KARA II on the stage with two KS28s on the floor under the catwalk. Meanwhile, the second area covered the next 40m with the first set of PA towers. “We had weight limitation on those towers and due to their wide position - 48m apart - and the presence of the B-stage, we decided to use eight K2 and two KARA II down in a narrow setting, all on 70°,” stated Lombardi adding that