Music Hall

[Mozart]

Would you care if a music hall used speakers? I had this idea for a concert/opera hall where each box would have its own surround sound kind of thing on it. It would fit a lot more people and the sound would be great. I think it would work best for opera. Also, what about a screen so if you wanted to, you could see the singer's face or see the stage better. I know it's going to be a big deal, but why can't you modernize the music hall? If you lived in a city with this setup would you attend performances?

[toledobass]

There are some halls that already use this type of sound reinforcment.  It's used to make up for halls with deficiencies.  They're set up to help sound like a better hall,  not to have the primary sound coming from speakers though.  They add an illusion to the hall...you aren't supposed to know that there is sound coming from speakers.  The hall in Indianapolis comes to mind and there are a few others that use this technology,  but I don't recall them off hand. 

Broadway musicals use sound reinforcement like you are talking about,  where the sound is boosted and pumped through the hall so everyone can hear. 


Allan

[gmstudio]

Tangentally - I'd like to see some orchestras sell true "orchestra" seats...maybe 10 seats throughout the orchestra where a patron could sit, for example, between the flute and oboe players, or amongst the brass section?

[toledobass]

Lots of times board members and special guests are invited to do just that during rehearsals.  It would feel wierd to me to have the audience on stage during a performance,  though.  I always enjoyed seeing concerts from the terrace section in Davies Hall though (It's above and behind the orchestra).  Totally different experience seeing a performance from that perspective:

Davies Terrace view


Allan

edited for image

[jochanaan]

Boettcher Hall in Denver has speakers for the top row, a precarious circle of seats suspended from the ceiling.  Years ago when they were still doing operas there (fortunately there's a separate opera house now, the Ellie Caulkins), I saw Don Giovanni from that circle.  The speakers were poor, the amplification was uneven and only for the singers, and the effect was generally very bad.

Happily, Denver voters just passed a bond issue that provides for the rebuilding of Boettcher Hall.  Woohoo!

[Mozart]

So besides the speakers, would you object to the screen that zooms into the singers faces...or the conductor, or the tuba player?

[some guy]

I would only care if the hall did NOT have speakers, 'cause then how would we be able to hear all that stuff on the CDs and laptops that the composers brought with them?

The mixing board would be useless!

[Mozart]

I would only care if the hall did NOT have speakers, 'cause then how would we be able to hear all that stuff on the CDs and laptops that the composers brought with them?

The mixing board would be useless!

No one would be able to hear my techno version of don giovanni? But I have taken out all the flaws to the finale and made it groveable!

[Mark]

I'd avoided this thread because of the title. Conjured up images of crappy variety and vaudville acts from the early 20th century. Was quite disappointed when I finally read the OP ...

[Wendell_E]

I'd avoided this thread because of the title. Conjured up images of crappy variety and vaudville acts from the early 20th century. Was quite disappointed when I finally read the OP ...

I've avoided it for exactly the same reason. 

So besides the speakers, would you object to the screen that zooms into the singers faces...or the conductor, or the tuba player?

Houston Grand Opera did this a few seasons back, when Hvorostovsky sang his first Rigoletto there.  I don't know if that was just a one-shot deal or not.  If I want to focus on something, I'd rather just use my opera glasses, and focus on what I want to see.

The whole thing seems kinda topsy-turvy to me.  Instead of trying to make the home experience as close to live as possible, we give up and make the live experience as crappy as the home one?   

The finale to Don Giovanni's just fine as it is.  The last time I saw it, the conductor (and/or director) decided to go back to the old practice of ending it as Don Giovanni gets dragged to hell.  I hated it.

[jochanaan]

So besides the speakers, would you object to the screen that zooms into the singers faces...or the conductor, or the tuba player?

Yes.  I think it would be too visually distracting.  But maybe I'm just an old fogey.

I don't much object to supertitles, although I tend to listen and watch the actors on stage more.

[Mozart]

Are there theaters where opera is performed that use screens to show the backgrounds and stuff?

[Cato]

Are there theaters where opera is performed that use screens to show the backgrounds and stuff?

Yes, I have seen several like this, one was a performance of Busoni's great masterpiece Doctor Faust many years ago in D.C.

[Siedler]

Yes, I would care. I want to experience the unamplified sound, thank you very much.  I think they use this in Finlandia Hall in Helsinki because the bad acoustics (can't wait 'till they build the new house).

[Siedler]

Are there theaters where opera is performed that use screens to show the backgrounds and stuff?

Of course.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgLk-x2tp4 

[Mozart]

Of course.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgLk-x2tp4 

Where and how did the French discover my secret dance moves?