Acoustics of opera houses: A cultural heritage

Abstract

An important part of contemporary Italian musical culture has developed inside historical opera houses. An outstanding opera repertory was especially conceived to match these places, both from the architectural and the acoustical points of view. But, while extensive attention is devoted to architectural and historical aspects, the acoustical characteristics of an opera house, that is, the set of listening attributes which make such a place unique among all spaces for music, are still nowadays hardly recognized as being paramount. In fact they can be rightly considered a relevant cultural heritage in Italy and can thus be called acoustical heritage. This new kind of heritage calls for accurate study and attention, both from the scientific and social points of view. To preserve the heritage for future generations, it is necessary to know it precisely and to elaborate means of accurate description. A project with the participation of international specialists has been established to agree on a standardized procedure for acoustic measurements specific to Italian historical opera houses in order to investigate the pecularity of these places. The aim of the project is to give a state-of-the-art acoustic documentation fo some theaters with the possibility of later applying up-to-date acoustical analysis.