Ian P. Hudson and Opera Omnibus

Opera Omnibus: Count Ory (May 1994)

For Count Ory (by Rossini), John Braithwaite did the stage design. John is an architect by profession, and he decided on a clean, stylized setting for this story which is set in mediaeval France. There are scenes in the open air near a castle, and he wanted a long straight ramp on which the chorus could walk up to a narrow rostrum along the back of the stage for those scenes. He also required a wide ramp that sloped inwards and forwards from the right hand rear corner of the stage.

The practical requirements were almost contradictory: the ramps had to be strong enough for a large number of people to stand on them, but easy for just two stage hands to dismantle and remove from the stage. They also had to be collapsible, as in the interior scenes they had to be stored in the very limited space in the wings at Haslemere Hall.

The practical requirements were almost contradictory: the ramps had to be strong enough for a large number of people to stand on them, but light enough so that it would be easy for just two stage hands to dismantle and remove from the stage. They also had to be collapsible, because in the interior scenes they were not required, and had to be stored in the very limited space in the wings at Haslemere Hall.

The straight, narrow ramp had to be 2 feet wide and 12 feet long, and had to rise from 0 to 2 feet in height within that length. I made it in the form of two ramps 6 feet long rising to 1 foot in height, plus a base 1 foot high (throughout its length) for one of these pieces, so that using this the two parts placed end-to-end made the required shape. However, the two sloping parts can also be used side by side to make a ramp 4 feet wide, and 6 feet long rising from 0 to 1 foot in that length. For this set of pieces, I made the tops out of 19mm thick plywood, and the supports from softwood. The supports were hinged so that with the top removed they folded flat, but with the tops in place the supports kept their shape and could not collapse. They worked beautifully, and John Braithwaite used them again in later opera set designs. He still has them in store for future re-use. The first photo shows the long ramp inside my house, where I built it.

12x2 ramp at construction

The wide ramp was an irregular shape: its width was 5 feet at the rear edge, and 10 feet at the front edge. It was 8 feet from front to rear. Its footprint was oblique overall: the front right hand corner had to be 1 foot to the left of the rear right hand corner. Its plan view is shown in the following diagram, in which the green and orange lines are included as rulers to show how the whole was constructed as five separate ramps, each of which is self-contained and can take the weight of people standing on it when corrected assembled. The tops were cut from 19mm thick MDF (medium density fibreboard), and the supports from softwood; and, as with the 12ft × 2ft ramp, the stays for the legs were interrupted with hinges, to allow the supports to fold flat for storage. Each of the five ramps has a front edge 2 feet long and a rear edge 1 foot long.

Note that this diagram is the plan view, not a perspective drawing; the tapering is how the ramp actually tapers from front to rear, and not the result of any forshortening in the diagram. The dotted orange line is perpendicular to front and rear edges, and is there to emphasize how the front edge is displaced relative to the rear edge.

In the opera Count Ory, each of the ramps represented a sort of “grassy knoll” in an exterior setting; therefore all the visible surface parts of both ramps were covered in a fabric like artificial grass (as used by greengrocers on stalls to display fruit and vegetables).

An early scene in Count Ory showing the ramps in use for the first time

It is worth mentioning that the Count Ory production won a NODA award for the set design, which is greatly to the credit of John Braithwaite. I was pleased to have played a part in implementing the design, by combining:

the strength needed to support a large number of people standing on each ramp
relatively light weight
the capability to be:
- dismantled in seconds
- folded flat for storage in the wings
so that a small stage crew could move it quickly,
and
low cost.

Had I used plywood instead of MDF for its top surfaces, the oblique ramp would have been somewhat lighter, but not as hardy at the sharp corners when dismantled because of the oblique shape. (The simple rectangular ramp's plywood top is fine because its corners are all right angles.)

The ramps have been used in subsequent years, for the first of which occasions all the grass had to be removed. It had been stapled on, so by removal of the staples (using screwdriver or knife) the fabric came away and there was no glue, and thus no visible damage to surfaces. However that removal job was hard work, and the method of fixing, which had to be secure for serious use on the stage, did not make for easy "recycling".

Here are the supports of the oblique ramp in my driveway, revealing their structure. The five pieces are spaced a little apart from each other. The central piece is collapsed almost flat, but still standing upright; the piece to its left is just partly collapsed, to show the structure at work.

Here, the five pieces are together as they would be in use. One top surface piece (the leftmost) is in place.

Here four of the top pieces are in place. The second from right top pieces is not fitted, so you can see the structure.

The next photo shows me outside my house with the ramps, after the 1994 opera was over and the ramps were returned to me for storage for a while. I am standing with one foot resting on the 12 foot by 2 foot ramp. The top — the sloping floor that people would stand on — of the "uphill" end of that ramp has been removed and is standing on its end, propped against the framework (onto which it would be fitted when in use). The obliquely shaped ramp is nearer the camera to the right, and you can just about see from the "nap" of the "grass" that it is built in five separate pieces.

Grassy ramps

The final photo shows a scene from Faust (February 2005) with the oblique ramp in use in the same place on the stage, but this time with normal smooth surfaces, and in a pale grey stone colour.