Bregenz Festival 2024
Superlatives Wherever You Look
The Bregenz Festival has been renowned for its magnificent stage designs for decades, and this year’s production of Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischütz” is no exception. Although the stage may not initially seem the tallest or most imposing, it is unsurpassed in opulence.
Hundreds of lovingly crafted details invite you to discover something new everywhere. During the performance, one should remain attentive, as exciting things are happening everywhere. “Der Freischütz” can be watched multiple times without hesitation, and each performance will offer new surprises. From subtle details to grandiose scenes, everything is included.
Naturally, the requirements for the sound system in such an environment are extremely high. The task is to convey the powerful dynamics of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which plays live every evening in the main hall of the festival house. The speakers must be as inconspicuous as possible within the stage design and maintain a neutral sound. The goal is nothing less than the perfect illusion that all singers are performing unamplified directly from the stage. This requires not only precise positioning of all sources but also particularly natural signal reproduction. About 60 speakers are hidden within the stage design to ensure perfect localization. This, of course, comes with the risk of high feedback susceptibility. Only with extremely clean radiating speakers and extremely low distortions can the required sound levels be achieved to reach nearly 7,000 people in the sold-out grandstand.
We are very proud to contribute with our systems to help the sound crew in Bregenz once again create this perfect illusion on the lakeside and delight over 200,000 people with great sound!
“‘The Freischütz’ presents a unique challenge for my team and myself for two main reasons. The first reason is the sheer width of the stage and its proximity to the audience. Ensuring perfect localization across such a large area is anything but trivial.
The second challenge is simply the extensive use of speech in the opera. Delivering high speech intelligibility to 7,000 spectators while maintaining the localization and the characteristic sound of a large hall is also far from easy.
The volume of the singers is significantly lower when speaking compared to singing, requiring different levels of amplification. We actually use four channels for each role: singing, singing (heavily compressed), speaking, and speaking (heavily compressed). This allows us to blend the compressed signal as needed. To simplify handling, we have mapped all this through VCA groups. The two signal groups (singing/speaking) then go to the spatial mixer, where the corresponding source is selected and positioned based on the scene.
The production is very complex since, in addition to the voices, we also have the entire orchestra, the stage music, and the added sound effects. Fortunately, with our excellent team, outstanding tools in the sound control room, and our superb sound system, we are not only up to the high demands but can even exceed them.”
Clemens Wannemacher, Head of the Sound Department, Bregenz Festival
