Andre Rieu
Andre Rieu's touring productions blur the line between traditional and modern music, staging classical favourites to stadium audiences with rock-and-roll production values.In 2007, he launched his most ambitious touring production ever. Entitled "A Romantic Viennese Night", the show centers around a 90% scale model of the Vienna Opera House, and includes ice rinks, horses, fireworks and hundreds upon hundreds of performers.
Soon to be certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, the set alone uses 950,000 pounds of structural steel and stands over 110 feet tall. Setup and strike for the show takes a total of 18 days, and requires round-the-clock rotating shifts of up to 120 stagehands, steel climbers, high riggers, winch operators and forklift drivers per shift.For the premiere performance at Toronto's Rogers Centre (formerly the Skydome), Panther was brought in to coordinate stagehands between the touring production and labour company, track and settle labour costs and ensure compliance with Ontario safety standards.
As it turned out, we also ended up helping to translate back and forth between an English-speaking local crew and the German-speaking tour riggers! Es war eine Herausforderung, aber wir haben viel Spass gemacht!