Something Moving in the Forest: Wayne Gooding assesses the gains and losses of technological wizardry in the Met’s ‘Siegfried’

Review of Siegfried, directed Lepage, conducted Luisi, New York Met, 2011.

March 2012, Volume 6, Number 1, 64–7.

Credit first where credit’s due. The big innovation in the Metropolitan Opera’s new staging of Siegfried was in the work of Catalin Alexandru Duru, a Montreal-based, 20-something computer engineer responsible for the 3D technology used principally to animate the forest scenes. Duru wasn’t listed by name in the programme, but his company, Maginaire Inc., was listed among the production staff of Ex Machina, Lepage’s production company based in Quebec City. Maginaire licensed the technology to another Montreal firm, Réalisations.net, which has been responsible for the interactive video used in the Met’s emerging Ring cycle since the outset. Duru’s big idea, simplistically stated, was to use constantly updating computer projections to create the illusion of a holographic image. It isn’t really a hologram, but the rapid-fire updating on the many surfaces of Carl Fillion’s revolving set fools the viewer’s brain into filling in the gaps to create the perception of a 3D environment without the aid of special glasses.