| For Immediate Release |
QSC POWER SCULPTS JONATHAN DEANS’ SONIC LANDSCAPE FOR ZUMANITY
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LAS VEGAS, NV… Following on the heels of Mystere at Treasure Island and O at the Bellagio, Zumanity became the third permanent Cirque du Soleil production in Las Vegas when it opened in September at the New York - New York Hotel & Casino. Occupying the newly-built 1,259 seat Zumanity Theatre, the show is the first Cirque production to explore the dynamics of love, eroticism, and the nature of human sexuality (you must be 18 to see this show), upon a stage drawing more from theatre than circus spectacle. Placing a decidedly Cirque spin on the risqué with a multicultural approach to dance, movement, acrobatics, costumes, and music, Zumanity unfolds before its audiences enveloped with an aural ambience crafted by sound designer Jonathan Deans.
"It's important for the audience to have a particular feel as soon as they come through the doors," says Deans, who has lent his sound design skills to several musicals on Broadway and in Vegas as well as to other Cirque du Soleil productions including Saltimbanco, O, Mystere, and La Nouba. "And that feel just gets bigger and bigger as they enter the auditorium. There are a lot of visual and structural cues that aid this process, but I have to make sure that sonically the audience knows it is entering a different world."
To help construct his aural vision, Deans relied upon a clever blend of high-end digital processing, loudspeaker technologies, and a sizable collection of CX Series amplifiers from QSC. Completely mixed at both FOH and onstage within the digital domain utilizing CueStation technology from Level Control Systems (LCS), Zumanity's complex audio textures arrive at listeners' ears via self-powered loudspeakers from Meyer, surround and delay systems by Nexo, and subwoofers from Turbosound. Nearly 50 of QSC’s CX702 and CX502 amplifiers team up to drive the surrounds, delays, and subs, delivering solid, workhorse reliability night–after–night, along with the premium sound demanded by the application.
Musically, Zumanity is a journey through a succession of vignettes, each of which evokes its own distinct musical mood and pace. Representing another first for a Cirque du Soleil production, the score contains several songs with lyrics in recognizable languages clearly supporting the show's theme, as opposed to the abstract vocal stylizations typical of other Cirque events. Working in conjunction with the music in a fashion tightly controlled and precisely reproduced at every performance, the sound effects give further form to the aural colors found on Deans' sonic palette.
A dedicated believer in the power and passion of the live sound experience, Deans feels that "a recording will certainly give you a reminder of what you've seen [at the show] or an expectation of what you'll be seeing, but it's a lot like a vacation photograph—it's not the actual vacation. On the audio side, the room itself and what we do in it is a unique experience. The only place you can really hear Zumanity is in the Zumanity Theatre."
A popular choice within sound reinforcement installations around the globe, QSC's CX Series amplifiers are available in 2-, 4- and 8-channel models. Featuring QSC's PowerWave technology, the product group is widely recognized for its high-output power, versatile loading options, thermal capacity, and unyielding dependability.
QSC Audio Products, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of power amplifiers, loudspeakers, signal processing, digital signal transport, and computer control systems for professional audio markets worldwide.
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For further information contact:
Roger Maycock Marketing Services Manager
QSC Audio Products Inc., 1675 MacArthur Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 USA.
Telephone (800) 854-4079 (USA only) or (714) 754-6175
Fax (714) 754-6174
E-mail info@qscaudio.com
Web www.qscaudio.com |
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