Acoustic measurements in eleven Italian opera houses: Correlations between room criteria and considerations on the local evolution of a typology

Sound energy distribution in Italian opera houses

“…In the small-or mid-sized theatres under study the measured sound strength values are high enough to assure to the listeners a good intelligibility of the singers' voice [6].…”

“…In this work, relying on the large amount of measurements collected in eleven historical opera houses [4,5,6], the Barron's revised theory, originally conceived for concert halls only, is extended to study the spatial behaviour of the sound energy in Italian theatres.…”

The Proscenium of Opera Houses as a Disappeared Intangible Heritage: A Virtual Reconstruction of the 1840s Original Design of the Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna

“…It means that the proscenium influences the direct sound and, to a lesser extent, the early reflections. In fact, the differences in stalls are higher than the ones in boxes, whereas, in the gallery, the direct sound contribution is negligible and the difference is due to early reflections only [10]. Sound strength values in the stalls are plotted in Figure 7.…”

“…Three positions of sound sources were used in the stage (two) and inside the orchestra pit (one), following the recommendation of the Ferrara charter [13]. RIRs were measured for each sound source in each position of stalls, boxes and gallery, for a total amount of about 2500 measurements [10]. Exponential Sine Sweeps (ESS) were used as excitation signals through a custom high-SPL sound source [44].…”

“…Then, it implies making an inventory of it and, finally, introducing legal protection measures to avoid its spoilage" [3]. Basing on the Charter of Ferrara-but not only-in the last 20 years, a huge set of acoustical data of Historical Opera Houses (HOHs) have been accumulated by scholars, but only few studies are available on international references [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”