TEATRO GRATTACIELO’S GIULIETTA E ROMEO

On June 4 and 5, New York Tech students, faculty, and staff joined in the production of Teatro Grattacielo’s Giulietta e Romeo in Battery Park City’s Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park. The outdoor operatic performance featured a 30-piece orchestra and a 30-member chorus, as well as multimedia imagery and animation backdrops created and rendered by students and faculty. The high-tech scenery accentuated Wagner Park’s architectural structure, with the Hudson River waterfront and Statue of Liberty as backdrops.

Teatro Grattacielo, led by Artistic Director Stefanos Koroneos, is known for its forward-thinking, progressive, and multimedia-based exploration of opera. With this production, Teatro Grattacielo celebrates the 100th anniversary of the opera, which premiered in February 1922 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

Department of Digital Art and Design Chair Rozina Vavetsi, at the encouragement of New York Tech Chief Architect and Vice President Suzanne Musho and School of Architecture and Design Dean Maria Perbellini, led a team of faculty and students, who collaborated with Koroneos and projection designer Camilla Tassi to meet the aesthetic and technical requirements of the digital production.

Visiting Assistant Professor Anila Jaho oversaw the students’ many contributions to the digital design and 3-D animation portion of the project, while Associate Professor Michael Hosenfeld worked with design students at Mediapro studios in New York City Green to acquire green screen footage of Giulietta e Romeo. The 3-D animation and the digitally altered footage they created will be projected onto the backdrop of the architectural structure at the Robert F. Wagner Park as the actors perform on stage in real time.