Electronica
This is a rather old story, but La Cieca heard it confirmed just recently. You all have heard, I trust, that this summer the Arena di Verona, for the first time in its nearly 100 year history of opera performances, is miking both singers and orchestra. Why? Because Franco Zeffirelli, director of all five of this year’s productions, demanded amplification: “Se non mettete i microfoni ai cantanti non lavoro in Arena!” [Corriere del Veneto]
WHERE HAVE ALL OF YOU BEEN, ALL YOUR LIFE? Are you all ‘that naive’? This shocked sense of incredulity is amazing.Amplification has been going on ‘quietly’ in opera houses for years.
Perhaps I am funny, and just a little cynical and tend to accept recording for what it is! I have gone to many a live opera and then perversely proceeded to analyze it from the word ‘go’ as a possibly helped amplified performance. Firstly: know the venue thoroughly and intimately, and every sound quirk acoustic in the various positions and vantage points in it. Then ask why you maybe are sitting one side of the auditorium (with your eyes closed, checking out this perspectives’ sort of thing ) and I:E. find instruments and /or singers from the extreme right of the orchestra pit are coming directly ‘point source’ straight at you as they say in the Hi Fi trade: at you from the left. F#ck any suggestion of a reflection….or a miracle! I know of one classic example of a bass baritone 30 years ago,(his voice was ‘shot’)- and to make his voice project: they had him, stand in a particular position on a stair and not move. So as to be picked up by a telescopic mike hidden amongst the lighting bank array suspended on a particular circle balcony. Even if speakers are in the audiotorium and actually switched off, the sheer intensity of sound levels reached ‘live’ can excite and turn their cones into passive ‘switched on’ reinforcement radiators of sound. If you have enough speaker arrays in a room in your own house and then with only certain channels operating; go up close to the ‘so called dead speakers’ and listen. Especially if they are in corners. They can start, producing passive ‘extra sound’.
Opera houses today in any case are full of electronic cables, mikes and other paraphernalia. Excuse: for radio, TV and video purposes ‘when needed’ as they say. They just forget to tell you when they are turned off or on and ‘exactly ‘what they are doing right, as of now’ at this moment during a performance.. Opera houses by design with all that ‘plush’ lend themselves to electronic camouflage. Out of performance hours, if you investigate; you may check along a passageway and see some decorative circular grill amongst the chintz and then you move closer…. No, it is not a announcement speaker monitor for patrons, as you first thought. That circular stub you see in the center behind the grill is not a speaker’s voice coil but a bug eye security camera…And so the game of ‘in -house’ deception goes. The best tell-tale sign : is that burnished metallic edge to rising crescendos, that electronic amplified sound can get.
Back in the 70′s I remember an article where it showed a full photo display of a new mega powered backstage ‘sound reinforcement systems’ ready to be installed in one of the ritzy European opera Houses . Designed as a no distortion, mega expensive ‘special effects’ system for just thunderstorms , organ sounds etc during productions. Who were they trying to fool? Pull my other leg!
Thanks a million, Harry, for your opening paragraph! Incredible that people should continue with their innocent notions that we aren’t being subjected to any and all manner of subtle and not-so-subtle enhancement.
CHAT, CIECA?
There is currently a Barber from Los Angeles being transmitted with quite a marvelous rendition of Rosina’s first cavatina by Joyce dD just now rendered up…where is la casa della Cieca ossia Madamigella Bobolinka?
Sorry, I’m obligated to attend a wedding with some old friends up in Rhinebeck and it’s just busy busy busy.
B_A_B What you never got an invite to Chelsea’s wedding? Well they are poorer for it…they missed out on a wonderful wedding present. One : a beautiful sample box ..from the collection of BAB’s spiders.
Are you wearing your tin hat when you do this “out of performance hours” investigation of opera houses?
No Pelleas. Not as a ‘tin hat tradie’.When I was involved in the agency scene of the business,it gave me privileged access ‘out of performance hours’.. I have been a Hi Fi freakie since I was a young kid and fascinated how sound behaves in various venues and why. Gone are the days where one could listen to many new recordings- technical details unseen – and judge correctly ‘tell-tale acoustics of the venue it was recorded in’. From the unique ‘texture’ captured with certain instruments. Today most new recordings are manipulated digital sludge, all lovely and clean but stripped of ‘venue atmosphere’. Any show of amps, mics and speakers etc. I was / am immediately drawn to investigating. The way to find out things about venues you visit , is to keep a sharp eye & a keen ear: recognize what you are actually seeing and hearing….from everybody. From a off side comment of a performer ‘how the sound always seems to be lousy in rehearsal in this venue’- when they were not talking about vocal marking – to a techie that is pissed off after they got a rap on the knuckles for a stuff up somewhere. It is amazing what and how much they will confide if angered by other staff..
The best way I found for confirming: that is ‘having the tech people give the game away’about such things : was always be charming, be slightly ingratiating ; act a little stupid ,innocent and dumb. By asking questions about sound ‘a bit off to the side’- but not obvious. Before long when you can have them feeling a little bit flattered then, will blurt out things they think ‘went right over your head’.
Little did they know perhaps, they just told you exactly what you had maybe long suspected and really wanted to know. Better still, be close to former performers, who also now work ‘front of house’ /have perfect pitch / and know exactly the full capabilities or non capabilities of the singers on stage. And tend to therefore witness the performances night after night, knowing every inch of the House and its entire facilities. Who hear also just what has been installed, upgraded or maintained of late. Bring all the associated things together…gives the answer.
I’m heading up next week for the opening of the Trovatore – Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sondra Radvanovsky, Marianne Cornetti. Sadly I won’t be able to make the comparison between the venue miked and not-miked as this will be my first visit there. I know that Caracalla is miked given the wide open space there and the fact that is was never meant as a theatre – unlike say Orange- and there have been occasions in the past three years where the miking has been very unsuccessful – the Tosca last year, as well as being an abysmal production theatrically and musically, was a disaster. Though I must admit that the baaing of the live sheep on stage at the beginning of the 3rd act was well captured.
In response to loouads quote about cameras – I don’t know how it is in other places but here in Italy flashes are constantly going off during performances. La Scala is bad for that – I swear that at last Friday’s Barber there wasn’t a moment of Almaviva’s aria at the end that wasn’t accompanied by flashes from the cameras of eager Juan Diego Florez fans who wanted to capture his every movement! And the same thing happened during Domingo’s performance of Cyrano – particularly during the death scene. Same thing at the ballet where a flash from a camera could cause a dancer to lose focus and stumble. And these fools don’t realize that their flash does SFA in the theatre. And the management does nothing – absolutely nothing about it.
Strangely there was no photo taking during Tannhauser, Rheingold or From the House of the Dead – perhaps non-Italian operas discourage would-be photographers.
Totally off topic here – well not actually as she is scheduled to sing Carmen at Verona – does anyone know what has happened to Kate Aldrich. She was scheduled to sing in Barber at Scala but was listed as ill and she has been replaced in the Pesaro Cenerentola. Her website doesn’t indicate any schedule changes.
I wonder if Kate Aldrich’s voice is getting too big and unwieldy for Rosina. She was sensational as Adriano in Berlin’s Rienzi and she is slated to sing Didon in the Deutsche Oper’s Die Trojaner (in French) in December. Plus, she has been singing lots of Carmens in very big theatres. I remember Baltsa’s effortful Cenerentola and Isabella after she had been belting out Carmens in the Grosses Festspielhaus. It wasn’t pretty. As for amplification – is there any way Magdalena Kozena can sing Carmen in the GFSH in 2012 without it?
Off-topic / somewhat related: Speaking of Carmens, has anyone heard Uria-Monzon recently? She is doing my performance of Carmen at the Liceu in October (a new Bieito production, gasp)!
I heard Uria-Monzon last year at the Chorégies d’Orange – she sang Santuzza in Cavalleria (Georges Prêtre conducted). She also sang Carmen there a few years before, but I did not see her then. She is a very striking woman and a good mezzo – although I gather she is planning a Tosca next year or the year after.
Bieto let loose on Carmen…hmmm…the cigarette factory must be out for starters. Still, they will need “la fumée – la fumée”…the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano?
Is there any way Magdalena Kozena can sing Carmen without any charisma?
Haha!
You obviously remember that weird Covent Garden Cenerentola, Monty.
Thanks for bringing up Aldrich, Willym- I’ve been looking for an excuse to post this. vhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt22TFweff4
Theodossiou vs. Aldrich in Maria Stuarda from Palermo in late May of this year. Both Demented and Filth! Theodossiou milks the curse for all it’s worth (love the ‘oscena’), and then don’t you love the shameless diva mugging at curtain??? There’s a pirate of the entire scene from the dress rehearsal on here too and it’s great fun! The sound is miked a lot closer and a lot of those interpolated high notes are true paint peelers (I love ‘em!!) vhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAkOnz92D1U
There you go, and yes this is awesome sauce!
Thanks, ON!!! I posted the whole scene from the dress rehearsal a little further below as well…
It’s fabulous, but is it bel canto?
I know it’s a dead body in a coffin, but is it art?
Eddie: “That, Patsy, is my father”.
Patsy: “Yes, but is it art, Eddie?”
That’s strange. Open theaters built in atiquity have excellent acoustics. The Epidauros theater in Greece- capacity 15000, and built 2500 years ago- does not mike performances of either musical or theater events. if you toss a coin on the marble seats in the first row, can can hear the sound clear as a bell from everywhere.
Very true Constantine however the arena in Verona was never meant as an amphitheatre for dramatic performances. Like the Colesseo it was an amphitheatre built for sporting events. I have a feeling the acoustics were never that good. Same goes for Caracalla where the Baths are simply used as a backdrop.
Just wondering if anyone has heard how the acoustics are in the newly restored amphitheatre at Pompeii?
I’ve sat in the last rows of the Arena a number of times. The acoustics are amazing- all the more so because the audience in the past has really hushed. Except for occasional street noise ( vespas, cheers during soccer games) it is truly a fantastic place for opera, even though the Arena was not built for theater.
Perhaps FZ’s hearing is declining, a common malady for those growing older.
I was in a cheap seat at the Arena back in 1982 for Macbeth and I remember a stunning pianissimo high D flat from Dimitrova. And her fortissimi could probably be heard in Venice.
This is because the stage is a perfect ellipse and the sounds from one focus is reflected to the other via all the points in the ellipse (like in whispering galleries – one of the chambers in the US House of Representatives is shaped this way, which apparently allowed John Quincy Adams to eavesdrop on conversations by placing his desk in one of the foci). However, this would only work perfectly if the actor was standing in the precise focus.
I also seem to remember something about the limestone possibly acting as a filter – or it could be something to do with reverberation.
The Roman Theatre (like the one in Orange) relies on the monumental acoustic wall to act as a soundboard.
sorry again – I was answering Constantine (whose book I have received but not read yet).
Hmm… let’s try this again! (put the ‘v’ in the wrong place…)
Theodossiou vs. Aldrich 1 (w/ shameless diva mugging)
and Theodossiou vs. Aldrich 2 (entire scene, w/ paint peelers!)
Wouldn’t it be easier for the Signore if he just bought new batteries for his hearing aid?
Manou,
You’re right about limestone. It was used by the Romans when the upper part of the Epidauros theater was expanded. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus theater, at the foothills of the Parthenon, is constructed also of stone. It was built 1800 years ago-capacity 5000- and its acoustics are fantastic. Every word can be heard in unmiked theater performances, and Callas, among other famous singers, gave a recital there.
I’ve sat in both great and awful seats at Verona and the sound was always superb! Amplification is completely unnecessary there.
I just found a video from 14 years ago that I had made of the Nile Scene ( with the bulky non-digital stuff that was then available – bottom of the line amateur stuff) from my perch in the upper reaches of the Arena. The picture was never very good – but the sound is amazing – not much volume – but clear and floating – just magical. It just confirms what a wonderful place the Arena has been for opera.