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Fire Feast

The gala opening of Opera Open 2019 featured interactive projection mapping that reversed the traditional stage layout of the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv for the first time.

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Fire Feast

  • Type: Interactive, Generative, Mapping, Stage
  • Location: Ancient Theatre, Plovdiv
  • Premiere: June 2019
  • Director: Nina Naidenova
  • Conductor: Dian Chobanov
  • Scenography & Interactive Media Design: Petko Tanchev

3D Modellers: Miroslav Ivanov and Lazar Mitev | Audio Processing: Georgi Atanasov and Atanas Dinchev | Performers: Orchestra and Choir of the State Opera – Plovdiv | Soloists: Mariana Panova, Tanya Ivanova, Georgi Sultanov, Mihail Puliev, and others

A Concert in Light — where music ignites in bursts of colour, waves of motion, and flashes like instrumental fireworks. In the Ancient Theatre, orchestral energy becomes a living choreography of voices, bodies, and images, carrying the rarely heard works of Skryabin, Messiaen, Verdi, Nenov, Wagner, and Ockeghem. Sound becomes light, light becomes movement — a celebration of its power to enchant, heal, and exult.

Gala opening of Opera Open 2019 by State Opera Plovdiv

Plovdiv Award for Contemporary Multi-genre Arts

Sonic Architecture

For the opening concert of Opera Open 2019, the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv was transformed into a living instrument of light. Real-time generative visuals, programmed in TouchDesigner and blended with Houdini geometry and Substance Painter textures, formed the core of the projection mapping. A custom audio analysis system, built with Max for Live, processed live feeds, driving distinct visual layers—backgrounds reacting to orchestral sound, objects to solo lines.

Real-Time Resonance

Visual Alchemy

The projection mapping for the Fire Feast concert is driven by real-time generative visuals programmed in TouchDesigner, supported by a custom-built GUI that reveals all key parameters for live control. The content is organised into optimised components to ensure seamless real-time processing. The generative visuals draw on a wide range of techniques and elements, including procedural noise, GLSL shaders, fire simulations with NVIDIA Flow, particle systems, light trails, and custom PBR materials — all designed to respond instantly to operator input and performance dynamics.

Alongside the generative layer, simulations and sculpted geometry created in Houdini are textured in Substance Painter to strengthen the thematic and spatial dialogue between the concert’s concept and the amphitheatre’s natural surroundings. Fire tongues are reimagined as solidified lava stone, while particles and sparks emerge from the geometry, casting dynamic illumination. These 3D objects merge with the real-time visuals, with parameters linked to the audio feed, enabling them to react to the music by transforming shape, shifting position, and altering colours, textures, and emissive maps in sync with the performance.

Synesthetic Dialogue

A custom audio analysis system, developed with Max for Live, captures microphone feeds from the orchestra and soloists. The sound separates visually into distinct layers — broad colour fields responding to the orchestral body, and detailed objects moving in sync with solo performances — creating a vivid counterpoint to the score.

Light in the Marble

On the opening night of Opera Open 2019, the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv transforms into both performer and canvas. In a striking inversion of space, the audience sits on stage while the soloists are positioned on the marble seats, turning the amphitheatre into a vast projection surface.

Light and colour flow across the stone in dynamic bursts and gentle glows. The theatre  becomes an instrument of illumination, resonating with the live performance in a seamless fusion of music, architecture, and visual design.