The Tosca scenery arrived from Houston in three 53-foot trucks in thousands of small pieces. It normally takes our stage crew two or three days to assemble all of the pieces into a full stage setting. With rental or incoming productions, minor repairs often have to be made due to the stress of shipping and handling. By the end of the third day, we have begun to make these minor repairs and scenic touch-ups.

Replica hand-carved foam sculptures were designed for this production. The sculptures are hard-coated with urethane foam and treated with scenic paint to look like stone.

Each act has a different silk curtain. These silk drops are weighted at the bottom with a drapery chain to keep them from fluttering around when the curtain flies in and out. Note that a small bit of drapery chain hangs below the curtain. This chain will be sewn back into the bottom of the drop. 

One of the final elements of the scenery to be assembled is the ceiling. The aluminum triangular trusses serve as a lightweight skeletal structure. The ceiling is attached and held in place by four batten pipes over the stage.

A scenic artist touches up the walls with gray paint custom-mixed to match the existing color. Note that the ceiling is now in place in the set.

Crew View: Scenery Change-over from Flying Dutchman to Cinderella from LA Opera on Vimeo.

Using a time-lapse photography technique, our FOH (front of house) and backstage crewcams captured the scenery change-over from The Flying Dutchman to Cinderella.

Numerous puzzle pieces of scenery for our new production of The Flying Dutchman are assembled to create one cohesive and spectacular vision. 

This is an early view from the auditorium looking through to the backstage. This bridge weighs nearly 5000 pounds and is an integral and dynamic element of the scenery. The bridge “flies” in and out on cue, controlled by a computerized chain motor console.

The deck is composed of hundreds of individual pieces of structural steel. When fully assembled with its mirrored surface, the deck becomes the playing area for dozens of cast members.  

The  scenery as designed is comprised of layers of vivid imagery  that only become apparent when completed with show lighting and effects. In this image, final preparations are made for the first onstage rehearsal.

Madame Butterfly is a rental production new to Los Angeles. This production has come to us from San Francisco Opera via multiple 53-foot tractor trailers. 

On day one, the scenery is unloaded from the trucks by the Carpenter Department, who will later assemble the many pieces.

In addition to the scenic elements that arrive with a rental production, we use a combination of different soft goods from the LA Opera stock. 

In this photo, a carpenter hangs a stock black velour masking leg. The masking serves the purpose of finishing out the edges of the scenery to obscure the backstage architecture and the lighting fixtures. All of the rigging systems onstage can be lowered to the floor for ease of assembling.  

This image of the Butterfly scenery shows some of the hardwall (wood) flats. The piece in the foreground (show portal 1) weighs 1470 pounds and is suspended on two batten pipes. 

Except for the floor, all of the Madame Butterfly scenery is rigged from a grid overhead and will "fly" in and out of view on cue.

Using a time-lapse photography technique, our FOH (front of house) crewcam captured the scenery change-over from Don Giovanni to The Two Foscari.