Robe Helps Shows Go On at Lviv National Opera Lviv National Opera, Ukraine, has been investing in Robe moving lights over the last five years and now has 16 Robe Tarrantula large LED wash beams and 22 T1 Profiles, among 146 moving lights available in the house rig. Lighting director Oleksandr Mezentsev has worked at the venue for the last five years, lighting and/or overseeing the lighting of all productions. In many ways, this has been an atypical tenure as he joined the team there during the height of the COVID pandemic, followed by the full-scale war that has been raging since 2022. Like most Ukrainian theatres, Lviv National Opera returned to work within two months of the war starting in 2022, and, despite the constant threat of Russian missile and drone attacks, it is now back to operating a full annual schedule, including three to five premieres per season, plus assorted revivals, totalling approximately 200 operas and ballets. The Robe fixtures have arrived in smaller numbers -- six or eight at a time -- for most of this recent challenging period, supplied via Odesa-based distributor Lightek. "We've basically purchased the fixtures according to the needs of the different incoming productions," Mezentsev says. The technical production for all of these has been fully sourced and produced in-house. The T1 Profiles came first, filling the need for a luminaire with refined color mixing and accurate, reliable shutters. The unit's rotating shutter module -- each of the four shutter blades moves independently and can be angled, and the entire framing system can rotate plus or minus 60 degrees -- cemented the choice. The animation wheel and the "attractive" set of gobos, plus the zoom and general focus ability of the T-series range, also "played into" their decision, notes Mezentsev. "These features are all essential for theatre." The high CRI of the T1 Profile is also suitable for producing realistic flesh tones, all-important in both ballet and opera; the units are positioned in the overhead rig in upstage positions and are also rigged on some of the front-of-house bars. The Tarrantulas were picked in part because their color range is similar to that of the T1, which "allows the workflow to be faster, smarter and more effective using fixtures with a matching color range," Mezentsev explains. The stage area is 12m square, and the Tarrantulas are positioned on the upstage ring of lights. "Robe now covers all the needs of any performance environment, and all the products are very flexible and solid, with excellent quality of light," Mezentsev says. "LDs are always happy to work with these machines," he adds, explaining that while they mainly work with Ukrainian creative teams right now, internationals are sometimes invited to collaborate on the production side. Mezentsev notes the opera house's good relationship with Lightek, which dates back around 20 years, noting that CEO Oleg Kaminker and his team "work hard at keeping us informed of the latest and most appropriate tech when it becomes available and are always on hand and very quick to respond." Lviv National Opera is currently in the process of transitioning to LED stage lighting, but right now the inventory is a mix of LED, discharge, and incandescent sources. The Opera has managed to retain a relatively regular schedule with some adaptations. Around 600 people work there, including all the creative and technical crews, front-of-house and administration, marketing and promotion staff, as well as full companies for the opera and ballet performances, and a resident orchestra. In addition to the usual wartime pressures, this winter, the harshest for the last decade, meant contending with power blackouts of up to 20 hours a day and temperatures plunging to minus 20 degrees Celsius, but the shows go on nevertheless. 
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