AIDA, a musical with a feast of lights

“AIDA,” a musical that has returned in four years, is highlighted by lighting. The beautiful illumination from 900 lights and 90 moving lights are as impressive as the performance of actors and actresses and Elton John’s sophisticated music.

The lighting fixtures for AIDA are twice as many as those of a large musical and so is the number of lighting staff.

The lighting changes 450 times for the 145-minute show or 3.1 times per minute. “While a large musical has 200 to 250 lighting changes, AIDA has much more than that because lighting is used to describe the background of the musical - Egypt,” lighting director Park Min-soo said on Tuesday.

The scene that has most frequent lighting changes is “Another Pyramid” in which Zoser, who wants to take power in Egypt using his son, shows a powerful dance with male ensemble actors. The director gives 50 cue signs for lighting for three minutes and 50 seconds (4.2 seconds on average).

How does lighting work in AIDA? The basic of lighting is the back wall behind the stage. It is a white fabric made of a unique material, 10 by 16 centimeters, and covers the back of the stage. It functions as a sketchbook. Above the back wall are 900 lights and 90 moving lights, creating around 60 colors. Half of the 900 lights cannot change colors. A “glass filter” is inserted at the lighting fixtures to generate different colors. Some 150 lights are solely for lighting.

Meanwhile, some 300 lights have a “color scroller.” Unlike a glass filter that makes one color, a color scroller can create 10 to 40 different colors. “AIDA uses a scroller that can generate 36 colors,” Park said. It is also impressive that they generate a gradation effect with a different chroma on the wide back wall. The musical runs at Charlotte Theater until March 11 next year. The ticket price is 60,000 won (54.41 US dollars) to 140,000 won (119.9 dollars).

Jeong-Eun Kim kimje@donga.com