GERRIETS technology for the spectacular Crystal Bar at the Vienna Opera Ball 2013

Umkirch, 09. Dezember 2013

One of the highlights at the Viennese Opera Ball 2013 was the Crystal Bar, which was built in place of the former cloakroom in the foyer of the Vienna State Opera.

The Crystal Bar consists of three oversized frames which are covered with ice-gray velvet and trimmed with sparkling Swarovski crystals. Here shadow figures from Mozart's Da Ponte operas and large Schikaneder's The Magic Flute silently glide past the audiencer.

The daily newspaper "Heute" reviewed  the Crystal Bar saying: "It is 18 meter long, stands on 30 gold-plated legs and brings Mozart's opera heros to life, thanks to thousands of crystals - welcome to Michael Manzenreiters magical world of shadow theatre."

After detailed plans of the bar construction were discussed, the technical realisation has been transferred to Gerriets Austrian subsidiary in Vienna. The movement of figures, small deflection radii, the synchronisation of the tracks, the setting of light and shadow contrast ratio - all housed in a maximum width of 60 centimeters - posed a particular challenge. To these ends a Gerriets CUE-TRACK system has been modified. In order to tension the printed muslin properly in the small curve radii, the track system is operated synchronously on both the upper as well as sub-frames.

With the 200% color printing, an excellent contrast between the ecru coloured muslin and the shadow figures could be realised. Due to the wishes of the architect to achieve a backlight colour temperature of about 3.000 Kelvin to create a warm white illustration, the ecru coloured muslin and a Gerriets TRANSMISSION screen as a diffusion film have been chosen.