At 82 years young, legendary singer, recording artist and frontman of The Four
Seasons Frankie Valli is still playing live and touring two weekends a month for
most of the year … with Robe as the first choice of moving light on the rider. Valli
has had multiple chart-topping singles and albums throughout an incredible six
decade career and has also been inducted into the Rock “n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
Los Angeles-based Dean Egnater is lighting designer and tour manager and has
been working for Valli for 15 years since originally being hired for a 3 week period
in 2001! Their touring schedule includes a variety of venues encompassing theatres
and arenas which are always sold-out, and for which the largest version of their
lighting plot includes around 46-48 moving luminaires – Ideally an equal split
between profiles and washes.
Egnater has been using Robe fixtures for at least 10 years, when his regular US
rental company – Hard Hit Productions from Elmira, New York – first bought
ColorSpot 1200E ATs.
The Valli spec now includes Pointes – which he likes for their properly “hybrid’
functionality and the variety of different potential looks – even though he doesn’t
use any of the gobos, prisms or other effects for this show.
He lights the show in an almost architectural style … effectively building a set from
the lighting, adding structure and form to the stage space with beams, intensity
variations and colour dynamics plus the ability to change the focus and emphasis
and follow the harmonies of the music.
He needs to be able to close the space down for the intimate numbers and open it
up again adding movement and excitement for the up-tempo moments.
Talking Robe generally he comments, “The colours are good and the movement is
nice and smooth’ and Robe is also his moving light of choice for reliability as well
as versatility.
More recently, in Europe, he has used BMFLs which he thinks are “outstanding
lights’.
With 16 people onstage all needing to be constantly lit, Dan creates the base
washes using PAR cans … then builds different looks and scenes with the moving
elements on top of that. It’s a subtle and moderately paced show filled with elegant
and considered lighting moves.
“The old school approach is completely appropriate’ he explained, adding that Valli
performs the same show each time, note-for-note.
On tour, he swaps the moving lights as necessary according to the rig that is
provided at each venue. The conventional lighting cues tend to stay the same as the
rig is fairly constant, while the moving light cues will be updated according to the
fixtures provided.
He feels that Robe has steadily become more of a key player in the world of
moving lights in recent years. Having encountered them consistently in Europe and
Asia for some time, he’s expecting the recent increase in U.S. business to have the
same effect at home.
