CELINE DION: TAKING CHANCES TOUR

In the mid-1980s, when manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance Céline Dion’s first album, little did he realise that 20 years later she would become one of the biggest stars in music history with more than 200 million album sales to her name.

    Recently turned 40, Dion’s last feature-length appearance in TPi was in 1999 when I dropped in on her Let’s Talk About Love tour in Florida, where she was joined on stage by the Bee Gees. Things have moved on in a major way since then, and the singer — possibly most famous for her Titanic movie theme, ‘My Heart Will Go On’ — has spent the last five years at the Colosseum in Las Vegas’ Caesar’s Palace with her resident show, A New Day.

    With her new album, Taking Chances, Dion emerged from the studio musically “stronger, maybe a little gutsier than in the past”, and injected her revitalised energy into the Taking Chances tour.

    Launched in South Africa on February 14, the tour — which features the work of creative director Jamie King — is booked worldwide for at least a year and once again brings together her regular crew, as well as Solotech, the Quebec-based ‘one-stop’ source that has supplied the entire production, from sound and lighting, to video and staging.

Heading the Taking Chances live production as tour director is the star’s former FOH engineer, Denis Savage, who masterminded rehearsals at Primm’s Desert Arena, 30 miles south of Las Vegas, during the last few weeks of A New Day, followed by final production rehearsals in January at the MGM Garden Arena where the team took advantage of the extended height.

    Having looked after Dion’s sound for nearly 20 years, it’s difficult for Savage to resist keeping his hand in. “Yes, it’s hard to let go! I don’t mix anymore but I was very much a part of the process that decided which consoles we would use on this tour. Last summer, we asked several manufacturers to come in with their products and we’d record a show run-through with each console so that we could review them.

    “We wanted two identical consoles for a number of reasons, one of them being familiarity, another being the possibility of interchanging parts in worst case scenarios.”

    The attention given to this console quest by Studer USA’s Jamie Dunn led to a unanimous decision by Dion’s team to choose Studer’s new Vista 5 SR console for both FOH and monitor applications.

    The Studer name, of course, is synonymous with analogue recording, but the late ’90s saw the Swiss company emerge as a leader in digital studio consoles. The Vista 5 SR is the brand’s first major leap into the live world, and Savage, FOH engineer François ‘Frankie’ Desjardins and stage sound mixer Jean-Charles Ethier are delighted with the choice.

    “At only about 30kg, it’s very lightweight and really small. It’s very flexible, too, and one of those consoles that is just a surface, so you can build it to suit the way you mix, with the precise amount of channels,” said Savage. “They’ve designed it in such a way that makes it easily configurable for both FOH and monitors.”

    The Vista 5 SR is a road-ready version of the regular Vista 5 and, like its Soundcraft Vi Series cousins, features Studer’s powerful Vistonics graphics-based user interface. The display/control technology utilises an array of encoders mounted directly into TFT screens that provide immediate access to all channel and output settings.

    A stand-alone Config Editor streamlines the set-up of the channel/bus topology, with all set-up parameters for each show capable of being saved and recalled from memory or a USB device. An expandable I/O array accommodates the available Studer D21m Series cards, including CobraNet and Aviom A-Net. MADI is used along the optical snake link from the stage box to the FOH/monitor processing rack.

    “Solotech was the first company in the world to take delivery of the Vista 5 SR,” claimed Desjardins, who took over the FOH mixing role around a year ago after 16 years as system tech. “Most of the latest digital consoles are very good and it’s hard to choose between them, but this is something different.

    “The desks that we had previously used set the bar pretty high, so we were naturally going to be very critical of anything new. Fortunately, nothing about the Vista disappointed us and it’s been a pleasure to work with it. It’s a very easy console to learn — after only a week, I was running the desk like I’d been using it for months.

    “On a practical note, one of the first things I noticed when I started using it is that even in humid climates like Kuala Lumpur, the Vista will run without any issues because it doesn’t produce much heat itself... and you can’t say that about every console.”

    Desjardins’ FOH console features 64 mono inputs (54 plus 10 spares), 36 stereo inputs (15 plus eight effects returns and five spares), eight aux mono outputs (seven effects sends plus a spare), 10 aux stereo outputs (eight sends to stage plus two spares), eight stereo group busses, four master stereo and four stereo matrix busses; all channels and outputs feature full signal processing.

    Outside of the internal dynamics, Desjardins’ outboard rack includes XTA SiDD and t.c. electronic Fireworx multi-FX processors, and a Jünger b42 digital de-esser (more readily found in broadcast applications) on vocal channels. The main reverbs come from four t.c. 6000s.

    As a back-up to the Vista 5 SR, all the mic channels are split and mirrored on to a Yamaha O1V-96 which is tucked away within one of the engineer’s racks.

    Desjardins admits to having resorted to Plan B, but reported: “Unlike some desks when they crash, it’s very undramatic with the Vista. It happened on one occasion when Céline’s manager was sitting right behind me and he didn’t bat an eyelid when I re-booted; it was that seamless.”

A CASE FOR MILO
Dion has performed live with Meyer Sound PA systems since 1993 when MSL-3s were the ‘in thing’, and Desjardins recalled the crew’s early relationship with the California-based manufacturer.

    “Even 15 years ago, we all believed that Meyer systems were the best choice for reproducing vocals and that was always the criteria for Céline. There would often be occasions when, due to various reasons, we would have to use other systems, but for all our production tours, we’ve stayed with Meyer. The support we get from the company is excellent and the quality of the loudspeakers really speaks for itself.

    “Since Céline last toured, the Milo line array has become a true industry standard, so it wasn’t difficult to choose a system that could be easily reconfigured to cover the wide range of venues we would be playing this time. In terms of power-to-weight ratios and clarity of sound image, Milo is a huge improvement, and I’ve noticed that we have better control of things like balcony coverage.”

    Solotech’s head of audio Mario St.Onge is in charge of setting up the current self-powered Meyer Milo system, and uses the MAPP program along with a CAD drawing of each venue as his starting point.

    He told TPi: “Right now for the O2 Arena in London [where TPi caught the show], all the clusters are organised in four zones with four cabinets allocated to each zone. There are 17 Milos and a Milo 120 per hang, beside which are 18 Micas and six 700-HP subs. All our power and signal distribution, and automation for the motors, is also packed neatly up there in the rigging.”

    Positioned backstage and accessed remotely via PC, a Galileo loudspeaker management system — combining Galileo 616 processors — feeds the entire PA which also includes 20 M’elodies around the stage for front fill, and four CQ-2 sidefills (for the dancers’ monitoring). Totaling 224 loudspeaker elements, the system is tuned with a SIM 3 audio analyzer.

    In contrast, the systems deployed for Dion’s shows at the Osaka and Tokyo Domes dwarfed the one present at the O2. These Japanese concerts were notable for the largest and most powerful Milo systems to date, with a record number of 168 Milo cabinets provided for each show by four different local rental companies — Arte, Sun, ATL and Kim.

    On the South African outdoor leg, the crew also harnessed the power of a specially developed version of Meyer’s SoundBeam parabolic dish technology — named the SB-3 for this purpose — to replace standard delay speakers with its wide range, long-throw capabilities.

OFF-STAGE MIXING
Unusually positioned in a room backstage, Jean-Charles Ethier’s monitor version of the Vista 5 SR offers 64 mono and 36 stereo inputs, routing to 16 aux mono and 20 aux stereo outputs, plus a master stereo and 20 stereo matrix busses.

    For this tour, Ethier is generating 24 stereo mixes as well as controlling click tracks. “The Contribution feature of the Vista allows me to handle this number of complex mixes quickly and easily, without compromise and with great speed and comfort, even though the console’s control surface footprint is small.”

    Ethier didn’t want to hear the click tracks in his mixes, preferring to inject them ‘downstream’. The flexibility of the DSP allowed him to configure 24 additional stereo matrix busses, with a single aux (monitor mix) feeding to each one. The click tracks could then be fed into the appropriate matrix busses, without interfering with Ethier’s monitoring. The matrix channels also allowed for additional EQ processing, giving eight band parametric EQ in total for each monitor path.

    “The in-the-round set design dictated that I’m backstage... it’s not because no one out there likes me!” grinned Ethier.

    “It was a bit of a shock when I first started mixing back here, compared to the normal position at the side of the stage, but with some audience mic feeds routed into the desk, and the video monitors in front of me, I’ve gradually felt more like I’m part of the show!

    “What I don’t get, of course, is the physical resonance of the live sound because there’s 200 feet of cable between me and the stage. However, communication between me and the musicians is not lost — they talk to me via switchable talkback mics on stage.”

    Apart from the four Meyer CQ-2 cabinets that beam a monitor feed to the eight dancers, it’s a ‘clean’ stage with everyone on Sennheiser EK 300 G2 IEMs with Ultimate Ears UE-11 ear moulds. “Solotech has a good, long-running relationship with Sennheiser Canada and so we use Sennheiser wireless mics and in-ear systems right across the stage, running across more than 60 frequencies,” explained Ethier.

    In his rack, Ethier uses SSL XLogic SuperAnalogue pre-amp for Dion’s vocal EQ/compression, and for general effects there are four t.c. 6000s.

LIGHTING & SET
It’s been nearly 10 years since I last met Yves Aucoin and he hasn’t aged a day. Dion’s production designer from way back, Aucoin is also notable for his lighting design for Love, the Las Vegas-based Cirque du Soleil/Beatles production.

    “We’d been in Vegas with Céline’s A New Day show for so long that I never expected to tour again,” commented Aucoin. “So after I realised how serious she was about this, I had a good heart-to-heart talk with her to figure out how she wanted to approach this. It’s a big year for Céline — she’s just turned 40 and feeling fresher than ever, and she wanted a big show that integrated a fashion element.

    “With that information, I started work on the looks. We incorporate four or five costume changes for Céline, feature eight dancers and, of course, it’s in-the-round which is something we’ve done before but it feels right to put her in the middle of the crowd because she’s such a great performer.”

    Solotech designed and automated the square 48' x 48' stage, and commissioned Montréal’s Scène Éthique to build it, along with an ego ramp at each side. There are several moving parts within the design, including 11 elevators, lighting pods and video hardware.

    For the most part, Aucoin’s favoured lighting fixtures for this show turned out to be Vari*Lites, although he’s recently been impressed by the latest Clay Paky and Coemar products.

    He explained: “Using local production on the dates in Asia, Australia and South Africa that we played before we reached Europe, I’ve probably had every brand in my rig at one time or another, and some impressed me more than others — but I’m not sure the audiences knew the difference!

    “But for the in-the-round shows, I’m using mostly Series 3000 models, including the VL3500 washes and spots. I love the movement of these lights and still feel they’re superior to anything else on the market. Ultimately, my main concern is reliability — if I’m assured that the bulbs are in good shape, I’m happy to create a show with whatever is up there.

    Aucoin treats the stage as he would a fashion show and the integration of 298 Ayrton Dreampanel LED floor tiles into the stage deck provides a dazzling range of moving imagery opportunites. Other lighting weaponry at his disposal includes eight Robert Juliat Cyrano followspots, Martin Atomic strobes and Montréal-manufactured MDG D1 smoke machines.

    Back in the late ’90s, on the Let’s Talk About Love tour, Aucoin was running his lighting from a Compulite Sabre console. Things have moved on since then and he’s now to be found behind a grandMA. “I divorced Compulite a few years ago and now have a new wife!” he laughed.

    “I used a grandMA very successfully with Cirque du Soleil on Love and right now it’s really the only desk that can match its wide range of facilities with consistent performance. I’m currently dealing with 26 DMX universes and it doesn’t jam. It’s not the greatest chick-puller, but I’ll trade that for peace of mind!”

VIDEO
Once creative director Jamie King came onboard, much of Aucoin’s conceptual stage design was finalised by modifying the original elevators for the purpose of including the dancers — Amanda Balen, Melissa Garcia, Kemba Shannon, Addie Yungme, Zac Brazenas, Dominic Chaiguang, Aaron Foelske and Miguel Perez — who are choreographed by Jennita Russo and Mark Swanhart.

    Erstwhile fitness guru King, who applied his skills set to Madonna’s Confessions tour and the Spice Girls reunion production — as well as also previously working with Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez — put his Los Angeles-based creative team to work on a bespoke video package for Dion. This is interspersed with eight cameras’ worth of live images, and cut on a Grass Valley console by video director Mireille Veillet.

    Veillet’s cut is sent to four Element Labs Stealth screens which form a video cube under the rigging, moving up and down at different points in the show. As well as the LED-tiled stage decking, other onstage surfaces for the moving images include LED ‘towers’ built from further Ayrton devices — the full Ayrton spec includes 122 moduled 150 AWWs, 48 Arcaline 50 RGBs and 24 Dreampanel Wall 64s.

    Whilst Solotech provided video equipment as part of its overall production package, Creative Technology also had a hand in a number of the tour’s outdoor shows, supplying an upstage centre 10 x 8 Lighthouse R7 screen and a pair of R7 I-Mag screens for the stage wings.

    Said a smiling Aucoin: “We’re just starting to see the real show because our first two months was like a camping trip, using local production. I like to see the audience reaction over the first 10 to 20 shows before I’m really sure that everything fits as it should, and so far I’m very happy.”

    Céline Dion’s production vendors for the O2 also included Snakatak (catering), Sound Moves (freight), Phoenix (buses) and, for trucking, Peter Smith — “our grid is very high and bulky, so we needed at least eight of our 21 trucks to be double deckers which Peter Smith can immediately supply,” advised Denis Savage.

    Dion’s band features musical director and keyboard player Claude Lemay, drummer Dominique Messier, bassist Marc Langis, guitarists André Coutu and Jean Sebastien Carré (also on violin), Yves Frulla on keyboards, percussionist Nanette Fortier and backing singers Élise Duguay, Mary-Lou Gauthier and Barnev Valsaint.

    After Europe, the Taking Chances world tour will head for Boston on August 12, where the North American leg will continue through until January 30, with further dates expected.

TPi
Photography by James Cumpsty,
Mark Cunningham & Louise Stickland