On location at St. Margarethen for Carmen.
photo: Franz Balduaf
Austria’s opera season once again opened in surround this year thanks to sound company Mister Master and Europe’s largest natural stage: a Roman-built quarry in St. Margarethen. The city’s OpernFestSpiele 2005 debuted with Carmen on July 13, 2005, which ran through the end of last month. Console and P.A. were provided by Multisound Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH (Vienna).
Mister Master’s team, including Martin Mayer (sound design, production manager and FOH), Phillip “Fips” Rauchwarter (FOH operator), system engineers Paul Legat and David Lucka, and Diana Mayer-Blaimschein (assistant, artist and wireless supervisor) set up 5.1 sound using 16 Bose 802s driven by Crest 6001 amps mounted on flagpoles in a U shape. Onstage, four Bose 802s were driven by Crest 6001 amps and six d&b L-160 active speakers, with JBL EON 15 speakers backstage. The main P.A. included six d&b Q1s and two d&b D12 controller/amps for each position. Mayer worked on a Yamaha DM2000, with Yamaha and Quantec outboard gear. Schoeps and Sanken mics were featured throughout, as well as Shure bodypacks.
