Supplementary Sound for Opera

Abstract

A supplementary sound system was one of the technical innovations of the 1961 summer season of grand opera at the Cincinnati Zoo Pavilion, a covered but unenclosed area seating 2500 people. Neither the 85-piece orchestra nor the Metropolitan and European soloists and the chorus required or were provided sound re-enforcement. The versatile, flexible sound-amplification and reproduction system was intended and used instead for a variety of supplementary purposes as follows: (a) auditory relocation of individual instruments or groups from the orchestra pit (actual) to backstage or on-stage (apparent) positions, to fulfill dramatic requirements; (b) solo voice modification and motion, when “supernatural” timbre or spatial effects were appropriate; (c) sound effects which were difficult for the orchestra percussionists to produce as realistically or dramatically as desired; (d) electronic musical instruments. Microphones in the orchestra pit and backstage, stereo tape playback, and a Baldwin electronic organ were the program sources. Sound effects filters, artificial reverberation, and a Choratone (for organ) were available for modification effects. In addition to patch panel interconnection, a keyboard of variable resistance switches provided rapid, smooth transitions among the seven amplification channels leading to different loudspeaker locations (e.g., backstage, on stage, proscenium, ceiling, and rear).