Sound at the Bregenz Opera Page 3
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Work begins one and a half years in advance of the premiere. There is always apprehension when the sets are presented as most designers do notwant the microphones and speakers to be visible. Yet in the open air on a lake the only place for these is within the set. So negotiations begin and compromises are struck as to suitable positions. The consequence has to be a decentralised system for amplification; there can be no overhead central cluster nor anything positioned underwater. But this system actually aids the focus of sound on stage.
Sources
As you can imagine there is a forest of fixed and roving microphones to consider. At least in the pit the orchestra and 'singing' chorus have fixed microphones that can be readily balanced. The opera is performed without interval so you can understand that some musicians forget that every sound they make is being broadcast. Sound engineers therefore have to filter out a certain amount of clunking, chat and background noise.
For the previous production of 'Porgy and Bess' all 88 chorus singers were also singing live on stage; it became impossible to test each microphone, to determine who was who on stage or to detect when one had left the stage for a pee! So this time the on-stage chorus is not miked.
But even if they were, by the time they got to wear the huge masks for the ball scene there would have been different problems to fix.
The stage chorus consists of local singers, dancers and actors who have learned the music but are then asked to mime as their voices can upset the balance of amplified sound. The dancers are even told to move like the non-singing chorus so as not to stand out! All should be proficient swimmers in case they fall in the lake and they do often get soaked when it rains. I suppose, for contractual reasons, this split into a singing and an acting chorus makes sense.
There are 26 fixed orchestral mics with 8 backups; 8+4 for the singing chorus; 8+8 wireless for principals with emergency replacements; 3 for the 'live' stage band (played in a soundproof remote location in the festival house). There are also complex stage comms for stage management, costumes, props, pyrotechnics, hydraulic control, lighting control, sound technicians on stage all of which require independent control as well as co-ordination. Finally there is a separate system for FOH and a 'Voice of God'
Speaker Positions
For 'A Masked Ball' the rear wall of the book provides an ideal position for the orchestral sound. Speakers are set into the wall
but are barely visible.
This sound acts as orchestra monitor for the stage singers as well as for the audience. Vocal sound is added to these speakers with a time delay (about one millisecond) to avoid any feedback (after all, the speakers are behind the performers). This 'long distance' sound complements the front loudspeakers and pulls the sound further up.
'Near distance' speakers are required at the front of the stage (neatly set-in behind acoustically transparent page edges which also double as steps) to both act as directional speakers for the various sound areas (to avoid echoes produced by main loudspeakers in the bookwall 30m behind the singer) and capture the bulk of the 7,000 in the audience.
Speakers mounted underneath the stage structure:
Details of the "pages" of the book show the perforated grill though which the speakers fire:
A balance of the two sources adds a depth, height or distance co-ordinate to any sound.
This principle works fine until an enormous floating coffin tracks across the front of the stage masking the near-distance speakers.
The "coffin" in it's under stage storage area.
Additional speakers are therefore set within the frame and cover of the coffin and are matrixed to replicate the speakers which they mask as the coffin moves across them. Then again, this coffin is a boat with no mains supply so the sound signal has to be radioed in to battery powered speakers (a generator would be too noisy!). A balance of the two sources adds a depth, height or distance co-ordinate to any sound.
Are you beginning to get the picture?
Aural and Visual Communication
The orchestra sits hidden in the pit along with a singing chorus positioned behind the conductor. None can see what is going on on-stage.The conductor requires a monitor sound of the on-stage singers and the remote live stage band.
He also needs to be able to see a reasonably close-up picture of the stage singers' faces to know that they are singing the correct music and in time. There is a camera and specially trained camerawoman who relays this detail to the conductor. The conductor in turn is relayed to large screens set in the voms of the auditorium and to hidden locations on stage. It is worth noting that in Bregenz they are aware of the light emitted by these monitors and therefore adjust their brightness so that
they remain discrete. (I grow increasingly frustrated in certain British theatres where the spill from an off-stage monitor can be brighter than the stage itself).
Work begins one and a half years in advance of the premiere. There is always apprehension when the sets are presented as most designers do not want the microphones and speakers to be visible. Yet in the open air on a lake the only place for these is within the set. So negotiations begin and compromises are struck as to suitable positions. The consequence has to be a decentralised system for amplification; there can be no overhead central cluster nor anything positioned underwater. But this system actually aids the focus of sound on stage.