Meyer Sound News : Clarity the Goal at Olimpico

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Clarity the Goal at Olimpico

By Mike Clark, Pro Sound News Europe, October 1997

Opera was brought to a mass audience recently in Rome's Olimpico soccer stadium. Turandot, staged by Rome's Teatro dell'Opera, starred U.S. Soprano star Sharon Sweet, had a set by Verona Arena, and was produced by Giuliano Montaldo.

Head of sound John Pellowe, who was assisted by system designer/SIM op Daniele Tramontani, says, "We did everything, including monitors, from the two FOH desks--an XL3 for orchestral submix and an XL4--but one of the big problems with any show on a 60 meter stage is getting monitors right so that everybody hears what's going on."

The Meyer Sound system supplied by Agora of L'Aquila comprised two main flown clusters with three MSL-5s, four DS-2s, three MSL-4s, and two UPA-1C frontfills and 16 UM-1C monitors.

Tramontani adds, "One of our main concerns was to keep the audience's sightlines totally unobstructed. We eventually got authorization to fly the rig with the clusters 60 feet off the ground and about the same distance apart, with an MSL-3 stage centre for a touch of extra vocal power. The MSL-3s, downfills, subs, and front fills were in mono, but apart from the outside box of each row, the main clusters were in stereo. That meant more feeds, processors, and equalizer. If you hear the sound from the stage first, then the boxes, it seems the sound is actually coming from the stage, so delays moved the sound back from the stage. John had to cope with no less than 19 sends with 10 different EQ's, so the SIM II was fundamental with such a varied system."

Pellowe confirms, "The SIM was crucial; I couldn1t have done without it. I used about 38-40 channels on the XL4, and the mics--supplied by Sound Hire (UK)--included Sennheiser MKH60 rifles and Crown PCM 160s for general vocal pick-up, including chorus, all over the stage: the 12 solo singers used Sanken COS11PT mikes with a Sennheiser EM1046/SK50 radio system."

"The sub setup was unusual too," says Tramontani, "as they're normally used very sparingly in classical and operatic music. Just about 6 feet behind them there were 30-odd Schoeps mics in the pit, of which part were omni-directional, so we used more than usual to keep each one's volume lower and delayed them to align them with the clusters. We used Meyer LD-1 Line Drivers on the clusters, which enable us to maintain signal integrity with the long cable runs. The intelligibility was really appreciated: you often have to read the libretto to follow what they're singing, but at Rome, even those seated 150 yards could hear the words clearly."

October, 1997

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