The cultural heritage of historical opera houses is recognized as one of the most relevant in the country due to the widespread presence of theatres in the territory and to their vitality in the Italian cultural life, which span over almost four centuries. Acoustics inside historical theatres can be regarded itself as an immaterial heritage which calls for proper conservation, fruition and valorization. In the last decade, driven by the acoustical heritage concept, there has been as surge of interest towards the documentation of the peculiar opera house acoustics and a National research project was accomplished for this specific task too. Together with previous and later available data this body of measures provided a useful set of information to support renovations and to better understand how the acoustics work. Moreover, thanks to the unique mix of opera, which entails multiple sound sources heard and seen from quite different locations, the historical theatres provided the ideal grounds to investigate specific issues. In particular the competition between stage and pit sources and the resulting preferred listening conditions were analyzed and the audio-visual interaction at theatre places was studied to understand how such preference is formed.
Acoustics of Historical Opera Houses in Italy: past, present, and future
PRODI, Nicola
2013
Abstract
The cultural heritage of historical opera houses is recognized as one of the most relevant in the country due to the widespread presence of theatres in the territory and to their vitality in the Italian cultural life, which span over almost four centuries. Acoustics inside historical theatres can be regarded itself as an immaterial heritage which calls for proper conservation, fruition and valorization. In the last decade, driven by the acoustical heritage concept, there has been as surge of interest towards the documentation of the peculiar opera house acoustics and a National research project was accomplished for this specific task too. Together with previous and later available data this body of measures provided a useful set of information to support renovations and to better understand how the acoustics work. Moreover, thanks to the unique mix of opera, which entails multiple sound sources heard and seen from quite different locations, the historical theatres provided the ideal grounds to investigate specific issues. In particular the competition between stage and pit sources and the resulting preferred listening conditions were analyzed and the audio-visual interaction at theatre places was studied to understand how such preference is formed.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
