Thomas Hase's Life in Lighting

Cincinnati Opera's Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director Evans Mirageas interviews lighting designer Thomas Hase.

Show Notes

  • Hase was Lighting Designer at Giessen State Theater (Stadttheater Giessen)

  • Hase was Lighting Designer for open-air ballet called The Shadow of Gobustan in front of Gobustan Mountains in Azerbaijan

  • Hase mentions that stage lights range from 750-5000W

  • Hase pioneered programmable moving lights in opera

  • Each light uses a 20A circuit (household breaker boxes use 15-20A)

  • History & literature degrees; Masters in Aesthetics (from the Institute of Theater & Design in Cologne, Germany)

  • King Louis

  • Tosca

  • La Boheme

  • A Doll’s House at the Abbey Theater in Dublin

  • A gobo is a dark plate or screen used to shield a lens from light.

  • Bonn, Germany

  • Fulbright Grant

  • Die Meistersinger

  • Cologne State Theater

  • Opera Cologne

  • Meredith Monk

  • World Premiere of Waiting for the Barbarians by Philip Glass Erfort, Germany

  • Tony Award-winning Company at Playhouse in the Park in Cincinnati

  • Frida

  • Triumphant march in Aida

  • The Demon (opera) in Barcelona

  • 1,200 lighting units for Cincinnati Opera’s 2018 season, avg. 800-900 lights/season

  • Giessen State Theater

  • Single-source lighting

  • Lighting cues

  • Moving lights

  • Wash lights

  • CAD = Computer-aided design/drafting software

  • LED = light-emitting diode

  • Tungsten lights

  • HID (high-intensity discharge) lamps are used in moving lights

  • Aronoff Center for the Arts

  • The Magic Flute

  • Hase wants to work on The Rake’s Progress and Wozzeck again, as well as The Flying Dutchman

  • La Boheme at San Francisco Opera

  • Ice (opera based on the Lundberg novel)

  • Cincinnati Opera Brat Fry: invented by Hase; Miesfeld’s brats flown in from Sheboygan, Wisconsin for staff, cast, and crew

  • Gary Kidney (technical director)

  • In the Garden of the Beast

  • Sherlock

  • The Bridge

  • NextFlight app

  • Arnold’s Bar (Cincinnati)

  • Frank Rich

  • Hase mentioned Gilbert Hemsley and Hans Tolstead as two of his mentors