Guy Simard, in the service of light and opera

Montreal music lovers have frequently seen the name of Guy Simard associated with lyrical productions. Similarly, At 74. In addition, the lighting designer, technical director and productions director, begins his latest project: The bohemian At Scottish Opera, in the staging of André Barbe and Renaud Doucet, whose kick -off will be given on October 11. However, This last tour of track is an opportunity to get to know not only with the one. However, who, in the shadows, highlights the work of others, but also with the current challenges of his profession.

“Of all the teams involved in the creation process. In addition, the lightingist is the only one who makes his mistakes in front of everyone. Meanwhile, The pressure is high and the time, limited. For example, When you arrive in a theater, you install equipment, we prepare the consoles. Nevertheless, At that guy simard, service light opera time, we have still seen anything. Therefore, We have three or four days, and hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars were invested in production. Meanwhile, We have to pack all this, and it raises anxiety. For example, This anxiety grows over the years and becomes, at a point, unbearable, ”explains Guy Simard at Duty.

Imitate. For example, do – Guy simard, service light opera

Guy Simard resisted this pressure very well, since he waited to be septuagenarian to taste the tranquility of his old days. Meanwhile, His British counterpart Paule Constable, with which he frequently exchanges, also derives his reverence, but at the age of 58. Furthermore, She announced it a few months ago. Nevertheless, after winning her sixth Laurence Olivier Award for best lighting, awarded by the Society of London Theater.

According to Guy Simard. Nevertheless, a constable Paule and it comes to the same observation: anxiety increases, of course, but it increases in particular because guy simard, service light opera “with new technologies, we can no longer do what we know how to do, because we no longer have our tools”.

A generation of outdated designers should not be hastily concluded. Additionally, Nevertheless, The problem is more complex and very interesting. Meanwhile, “Technological changes are a trigger in my decision to stop, but these are not the changes themselves. However, From 1999, I taught at the Higher Institute of show techniques, in Avignon in France, the use of new technologies. Similarly, So I know all the possibilities, ”says Guy Simard.

“The problem that has arisen is that theaters have started to get rid of their traditional equipment to replace them with new technologies. Nevertheless, but have done so in a disorderly manner. Moreover, It is this disorder that generates migraines and anxiety. Consequently, “In my latest production, I had 24 types of devices, which all came from different manufacturers. Similarly, Shopping guy simard, service light opera this together was simply impossible. For example, »»

And Guy Simard goes further: “Of these devices. Meanwhile, it is claimed that they can do everything, but, in fact, they do nothing nuanced. For example, Turquoises or warm and rich warm colors, it is impossible to do. For a perfectionist who reasons from the laws of physics, there is enough to tear out his hair. “When the different faults appear in various places in the spectrum, one cannot have a unit. Most of the time. I fled with a small base of more traditional projectors, with which I composed a kind of creaming over to make things uniform. But. there, we are in a strange phase, a bit like when in music we invented the synthesizers and that we wanted to replace everything with these synthesizers. Now violins are played with bows; These are not just notes. We can imitate, but we guy simard, service light opera cannot “do”. We are exactly in this period. »»

Guy simard. service light opera

Collaborations

Sometimes Guy Simard can still get away with it, even in very perilous productions, as The enchanted flute From Beard and Doucet to Glyndebourne. “In serious houses, like Glyndebourne, the technological transition is better, because they preserve a unit, with four types of devices. When we master certain types. we have a base that works very well and we are not taken with a general store that goes in all directions. »»

The importance of mastery of tools is to balance with time pressure. “It is 11 pm, the rehearsals are over. There, we know what did not work. But, at 8 a.m. the next morning, you have to have the solution, and it must be simple, fast and efficient. So, in this job, we don’t sleep every night. It’s exhausting and the more experiences, the more we guy simard, service light opera see the problems coming, and it gets worse. »»

In his job, Guy Simard is the interlocutor of many protagonists. “The first person I talk to is the scenographer. I have to understand how it has structured space. I must understand his charters of colors, his textures, his expectations in terms of visual rendering. With the director. it is more atmospheres, the strong points that we highlight, what we make disappear and what we focus on. Obviously with a costume designer, what matters to me are fabrics, coloring. »»

In the end. what matters is that “scenography, lighting and costumes are somehow distributed the charter of colors so as not to cancel each other. The classic way is that the light is complementary to the scenography and in contrast to the costumes. And if we are used to working together. we go much more in the nuance: we manage to create a guy simard, service light opera universe. »»

Residence in Montreal

After studies in pure sciences. Guy Simard received general training from 1973 to 1975, at the National School of Theater even if, at the time, he was mainly interested in lighting. When he left the school. he worked for the Théâtre de Quat’Sous and then eight years at the Jean-Duceppe company. In contact with music by musical, he became interested in the opera after a dozen years of theater.

“In 1985, I returned to the Montreal Opera as a technical director and lighting assistant. Under the direction of Bernard Uzan, I took the post of resident lightingist for fifteen years. I had to make about 70 creations with the Montreal Opera. There were always invited directors and. as they were happy with my work, I happened to accompany them when their show was taken up elsewhere. So I started working with American opera houses. »»

In the guy simard, service light opera United States, Simard passes for “European” school enlightenment, while in Europe it is “American”. “Here we are a little between two chairs,” he explains. Furthermore, “In the American system, we work with less powerful devices, but in greater quantity, therefore on more limited spaces. We will divide the scene into 5 or 6 meters sections. So, for the Wilfrid-Pelletier room, it will take six aircraft to cover the whole width. In the European system with three, they make the width. Light becomes very important, while in the American system, it is much more nuance and modulation. The European system was brought by the French. the Germans, film lights, whose expertise dates from the 1950s or 1960s and who worked with huge spotlights. »»

Guy Simard was attached to the Montreal Opera until 2004. Between 2007 and 2016, he collaborated once or twice a season with the shows of the Montreal institution. guy simard, service light opera He is the faithful lighting of the bearded tandem. Doucet, who pushed him in his entrenchments with Leses Contests Hëust town et The enchanted flute. “With all that there is to do. it is the equivalent of three operas with the means and time allocated for a single opera. »»

His biggest challenge will however remain theAïda At the Olympic stadium in June 1988. an adapted production of the arenas of Verona, with Katia Ricciarelli, Nicola Martinucci and Piero Cappuccilli, presented two evenings in front, in all, 65,000 people. “We are talking about tons of equipment and 200 projectors. But I had the opportunity to have fun putting a few modulations in there. »»

Guy simard, service light opera

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