Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2001 - 60

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 decentralized 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.

Figure 1

Figure 2
For the 1998 production of Porgy and Bess all eighty-eight chorus
singers also sang live on stage. It was 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 onstage chorus was not miked. But
even if they were, by the time they got to wear the huge masks for the ball
scene (figure 2) 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 microphones with 8 backups; 8+4 for
the singing chorus; 8+8 wireless for principals with emergency replacements; and 3 for the live stage band (played in a soundproof remote location in the festival house). There are also complex stage
communication systems 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."

Figure 3
O

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 book wall 30 meters behind the singer) and
capture the bulk of the 7,000 in the audience. A balance of the two
sources adds a depth, height or distance coordinate to any sound.
This principle works fine until an enormous floating coffin tracks
across the front of the stage masking the near-distance speakers. Additional speakers are therefore set within the frame and cover of the coffin
(figure 3) and are matrixed to replicate the speakers which they mask as
the coffin moves across them. In addition, 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).
TD & T

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2001