The new Oslo Opera House, a spectacular architectural achievement which has won global attention and admiration, was opened on 12 April 2008 by King Harald of Norway. With guests that include Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, and the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle, the opening season will be hosted across its three auditoria until June 2009.

Housing the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, the 1350-seat Main Stage measures 16m wide x 18m deep (extending to 42m when the iron is raised) and is mirrored by the Rehearsal Stage. Stage 2 is a slightly more modest 12m x 12m with shortest throw distances ranging from 15m, to 40m in the Main Stage.

To cope with these distances and to give a quality of light deserving of such a high tech, high profile venue, London based designers, Theatre Projects Consultants, specified Robert Juliat profiles and followspots to form the major part of the lighting rig for all three auditoria.

A total of 277 Robert Juliat 1.2KW 600SX zoom profiles and 81 Robert Juliat 2K 700SX² zoom profiles, with various lens tubes, were employed front of house, overhead and on side booms, while follow spot positions were filled by four 2500W HMI RJ Cyranos, four short throw 1200W HMI RJ Lucys and two of the Award Winning 1200W HMI RJ Super Korrigans.

Theatre Projects Consultants wrote the final specifications for the Robert Juliat equipment following consultations with the technicians at the Opera House.

“Our choice of Robert Juliat was not difficult,” says Head of Lighting, Paul Vidar Saevarang. “I have worked at the Opera for more than 20 years and we have always used Robert Juliat lanterns. We experienced some encouragement to change to other manufacturers but, after trials, we were very clear that we did not want anything but Robert Juliat.

“We think they are solid lanterns which perform well over a very long period of time. You get a great light out of them and they are excellent for projecting gobos - which we use a lot.

“The technicians find them easy to focus and good to handle and say it is like driving a top model car! What is more, we have never had any complaints from the lighting designers, which is great news!”

Robert Juliat zoom profile range use double condenser optics to provide maximum output across an even, flat beam which is vital for the fine lighting required by opera. Operational features such as shutter locks and a rotating barrel with barrel lock make focusing easy, whilst all parts are easily accessible for maintenance reducing the amount of man-hours required in tending to the rig.

Robert Juliat follow spots have operator-friendly features, in addition to their famed optical performance, such as a large heat-resistant wrap-around handle, roll-bar dimmer shutter and 100% closing iris, making them stable, controllable and reliable even over long throw distances.

The Robert Juliat profiles and follow spots were supplied by Robert Juliat’s Norwegian dealer AVAB through local agents Elpag AS.

"We are happy that, once again, Robert Juliat products were chosen for a new project in Norway,” says AVAB’s Kristian Heder. “Even though the contractor tried to replace the specified Robert Juliat follow spots with alternative products at a lower price, the only quality to meet the Opera's high standards came from France.

“This is testament to the outstanding quality and unprecedented support customers can expect from one of Europe's most reliable manufacturers of high quality lighting instruments. I am truly grateful and proud of having represented Robert Juliat in Norway the last 20 years, and I am more than certain that exciting new products will continue to come from the very dedicated RJ team."

This is just one of the many projects Robert Juliat has won in Scandinavia with Copenhagen Opera House and the new Royal Danish Playhouse being some of the others to be fully equipped with Robert Juliat lanterns and followspots.