Acoustics of the historical opera house of Bordeaux: Comparison between the results of objective and subjective surveys

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationships between objective and subjective results of an acoustic survey in the historical opera house of Bordeaux. The investigations were conducted with ordinary opera-goers during four performances of ‘‘Traviata’’ in order to have available statistical population answers. The results of an earlier experiment [C. Semidor, Proc. IOA 19, Part 3, 29–38 (1997)] carried out in a dual-purpose hall with a test questionnaire built with simple words which explain the sensations of the listeners, have shown that the questions are correctly understood. The comparison of the ordinary listeners’ answers with the objective results shows that the auditive sensations are fitting with the measured criteria obtained in the opera configuration with the opened pit and sceneries on the stage. For example, for the majority of people asked, the sound in this hall seems clear and coming directly from the stage (no surrounding by the sound sensation), and the sound attack impression is very clear, which is correlated by the weak values of reverberation time and EDT. In spite of comfort defects due to the age of the opera house, such as the lack of space between the seats, the architecture of the Grand Theatre of Bordeaux is very well appreciated.