Live Sound

Supported By
ProSoundWeb
A perspect of the staging for "Tosca" in Piacenza, Italy, where the performers were outfitted with Point Source Audio CO-8WL lavalier mics.

Point Source Audio For Immersive Production Of Classic Opera In Italy

Sound team opts to outfit performers with CO-8WL omnidirectional lavalier microphones for Puccini's "Tosca" in the city of Piacenza.

The sound engineers for an immersive production of Puccini’s Tosca in the Northern Italy city of Piacenza chose to outfit the performers with Point Source Audio CO-8WL omnidirectional waterproof lavalier microphones.

Due to the necessary social distancing of the audience and performers, the production called on many more technical elements than usual with an opera. From the projection mapping around the facade of the courtyard used for the staging to the immersive audio environment created by an Outboard TiMax system, this was a performance where technology came to the forefront with a goal of transporting the audience back to Napoleonic Rome.

“Point Source Audio’s CO-8WL offered many strengths for this production,” explains sound designer and mixing engineer Federico Bianchi. “First and foremost was the quality and the linearity of the sound. I needed to make very few adjustments to the timbre of the microphones, which were already ‘flat’, and able to preserve all the dynamics and colors in the singers’ voices. In addition, the mic size and shape made them invisible to the audience, while allowing useful positioning and precise capture.”

Performers wore the microphones on the forehead or on the ear, depending on the hairstyles and the stage needs. “In both cases, the result was excellent right from the start,” Bianchi states. “The mics allowed me to make the most of the amplification and provide good monitoring on stage (which was needed given the distances) despite the omnidirectional characteristics of the microphones and the proximity of the monitors in some scenes. Another important capability of the capsules was the resistance to external agents such as humidity, water, sweat and makeup, a fundamental aspect considering the positioning and the climatic conditions faced, from the afternoon heat to the high humidity in the evening.”

The end result was a production that met Bianchi’s expectations. “In all of the rehearsals and during both performances on stage there were never any problems,” he concludes. “The sound performance remained the same, proving the excellent qualities of the microphones.”

Point Source Audio

Live Sound Top Stories