The sweet sound of enhancement

We all know real opera singers don't use microphones.

Or do they?

The Felsenreitschule in Salzburg, which hosts a number of Festival operas, is just one of many venues to employ the Vivace acoustic enhancement system.

An article by the suppliers, Salzbrenner Stagetec, describes how the system works:

"Stated simply, the best known purpose of a Vivace system is to simulate or complement a desired acoustic environment. This functionality allows you to change certain acoustic properties of a venue by electroacoustic means. To this end, Vivace uses a number of techniques in order to create convincing virtual acoustics that sound authentic to the audience." 

"At the Felsenreitschule, depending on staging, two to four microphones are used to pick up the onstage sound. A NEXUS digital network routes the signals to the Vivace system. The Vivace mainframe performs real time analysis, processes the signals with a convolution algorithm and outputs them to a sound reinforcement system with digital amplifiers and speakers positioned precisely in the hall. Gunter Engel calculated a total of 54 locations at which speakers were hidden in the ceiling, the side walls, rear wall, stage and orchestra pit. These speakers output the supplementary audio computed by the Vivace system to enhance the natural sound. The large number of speaker locations helps prevent acoustic localisation of individual speakers. There are also eight mobile loudspeakers which can be placed to suit the current production."

"Things are completely different in a very recent, temporary Vivace installation. Franz Lehar’s opera, The Merry Widow will be staged at the prestigious Palais Garnier of the Opera National de Paris. For the performances, which will take place between late February and early April, the management hired a Vivace system which improves intelligibility. In addition, it enables acoustically correct localisation of soloists on stage. With Vivace, there are three basic ways of positioning a source: using a computer mouse or — as in Paris — a new touch-sensitive screen, to move the actor manually around within a computer model of the hall, using the innovative direction pointer which is pointed manually in the real room to the desired direction, or automatically in combination with an external tracking system. This makes it possible to achieve a correct acoustic representation of the actor not only across the entire width of the stage but also with regard to the stage depth. "

If you've ever wondered how acoustics can be manipulated without the use of cumbersome microphones or obvious speakers (and in some cases without the singers' knowledge), the whole piece is well worth a read.

Comments

[PLIMPTON]

hmmm. i just can't help feeling that this sort of thing is the thin end of the wedge

[Renata P.]

My prediction is that as the years go by, opera goers will make less of a fuss about amplification, and eventually concede its benefits. This will be the result of both generational turnover and changing mindsets. By 2023-2028 it will be routinely used (and acknowledged) everywhere - MET, La Scala, etc.
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Intermezzo replies - It is already routinely used nearly everywhere. If opera houses were more honest about exactly what it involves (as per the article cited) then I think there would be less pearl-clutching.

[Oroveso]

It already is in wide use. When my generation is gone there will be few or none left to complain/care/pearl-clutch as no one will know or remember what unamplified and electronically untinkered-with operatic voices (chorus too) sounded like. Powerful, immense voices like Tebaldi, Nilsson, Del Monaco, Ghiaurov, Crespin, etc. never had to worry about being heard even in the largest venues. What will be missed will be the art with which the smaller voices (Alfredo Kraus, Reri Grist, Teresa Berganza, etc.) used technique and training to project their voices (unamplified and unmiked) to carry over even large orchestras in big theatres and still be easily heard in the far reaches.

[Henry Holland]

Good. Due to the kind of operas I like, I'm tired of having voices drowned out by 110 piece orchestras and since I've never cared about "Oh! The glory of the human voice soaring above an orchestra" type stuff, it can't come a moment too soon.

[SJT]

"I've never cared about "Oh! The glory of the human voice soaring above an orchestra"

One wonders then why you even bother going.

However...

What I'd like to know is what the ROH used for the recent ballet "Raven Girl", which had allsorts going on musically - by Gabriel Yared - of no substantive interest to man or beast, but which did sporadically make use of the full orchestra, amazingly bathed in this incredibly warm, rich deep acoustic about as far removed from the house's natural pin-drop phone box sound as could be imagined, like Bayreuth on steroids.

Finding nothing else to occupy me, I kept asking myself whether just such a sound, however arrived at, wouldn't serve the upcoming Parsifal considerably better than that which a house built for late Donizetti/mid-period Verdi could ever be expected to offer naturally in Wagner.