In today's Sydney Morning Herald, Peter McCallum reviews Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) and points out that it calls for such a large orchestra, they couldn't fit in the pit and so are heard via an audio link from the Sydney Opera House's recording studio.
Was it worth separating the instrumentalists from the singers on stage? Is a bigger opera orchestra better?
McCallum says that with triple wind parts, 40 string players, 2 harps, piano, organ and extensive percussion, it is obvious why they had to be separated! He reports that it was a "worthwhile, technically well-managed experiment." He says that the balance between the singers and the orchestra was not as good as the cinema sound in the Met HD broadcasts, but had ample warmth and colour.
But he felt that the experience of hearing a heldentenor soaring above a large orchestra was lost by the separation of the musicians. And he also mused what it would be like to be with the instrumentalists in the studio, with video of the singers beamed in.
The video extract below is the opening of a 1983 German TV production.
