UK - In 2020, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s newly appointed director, Carlos Acosta, went on a ‘discovery mission’ to learn about the company’s home city. Amazed by the stories, culture, and diversity from within Birmingham, he commissioned a series of three new productions including a look at the sounds and history of Ozzy Osbourne fronted metal band, Black Sabbath.
Comprising the work of three composers led by Christopher Austin and three choreographers, led by Pontus Lidberg, the ballet’s story was written by the award-winning Richard Thomas, lit by lighting designer KJ, and heard of over three acts through a Britannia Row Productions PA delivery.
Paul James, Birmingham Royal Ballet commercial director, comments: “This ballet certainly brought heavy metal fans to the ballet for the first time, including legendary Black Sabbath founder and guitarist, Tony Iommi, who had never been to a ballet before and now attends regularly.
“Ballet is always attracting new fans and new generations of audiences, but Black Sabbath – The Ballet was exceptional. Over 64% of ticket buyers for the shows had never booked to see the Birmingham Royal Ballet before.”
Working with Britannia Row account executive Tom Brown, the ballet was in for another first when it began working with a live sound provider of this nature.
Brown reports: “The ballet aren’t used to using a touring audio company of our size but seemed to enjoy the experience, and we really enjoyed working with them. It was nice to collaborate with a delightful client who appreciated us being part of their team; we were made to feel instrumental in their delivery as the audio is such a critical aspect of this performance to get right.”
The first task was to find a composer who could work across the spectrum from rock to classical, as the piece would be played live by Birmingham Royal Ballet’s orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.
“Christopher Austin, who had worked on a ballet orchestration of the White Stripes was the obvious choice. He and the creative team then spent hours listening to Black Sabbath’s back catalogue to identify the eight tracks that would both create that iconic sound in theatre, and develop the lyrical ‘dance’ elements that would make this work as a contemporary ballet,” adds James.
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s technical director, Paul Grace, furthers: “The three composers for this ballet gave us a wonderful new sound – a fusion of heavy metal and classical music. We hired leading sound designer, Josh Blair, who has produced for the likes of Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Paul McCartney and Duran Duran, to build a sound design to match the complex requirements of this new score.”
Blair had spec’d Avid consoles and an L-Acoustics PA system for the project, the former his choice having become accustomed to the console in his studio production work. In monitor world, engineers Naomi Nash and Adam Taylor, who split duties on the tour legs, also opted for Avid S6L32D consoles.
“The key concepts with the design were to keep the integrity and clarity of a live orchestral performance, whilst also ensuring the weight and impact expected from Black Sabbath hits such as War Pigs and Nativity in Black. We specified L-Acoustics Kara II to tick the first box and added companion subwoofers – L-Acoustics SB18s – flown in a close coupled arrangement to achieve the second,” comments Britannia Row engineering dept’s Nick Boulton.
“The Kara provided a scalable platform to allow us to guarantee full coverage of the often quite complex topology of a variety of theatre spaces. This, along with the low-mid beam steering allowed consistent, high-quality audio across the entire audience. We supplemented the flown system with a variety of fills including eight 5XT to use as spot-fills or to add coverage to any area that wasn’t as ‘in your face’ as the musical content required.
“The design also had some additional low end reinforcement with a cardioid arrangement of L-Acoustics KS28 twin 18-inch subs. This provided some VLF whilst being discreet enough to hide in the wings, and not distract from the ballet performance.”
In conclusion, Paul Grace says: “We needed to work with a sound company with expert knowledge and the skills to support us. From my first meeting with Tom Brown, I knew we were in the right hands. Tom guided us through this complex process, making sure we had the best possible outcome in terms of our creative, technical and financial demands. The touring technical team from Britannia Row provided an excellent service, and I hope Birmingham Royal Ballet and Britannia Row can work together again as we develop further ambitions for this unique show.”
