At this year’s Lincoln Center Festival, in a co-production with the Park Avenue Armory, the Houston Grand Opera (HGO) production of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s The Passenger arrived for its New York debut. Director David Pountney, whose Die Soldaten was also presented in the Armory in 2008, worked with scenic designer Johan Engels, lighting designer Fabrice Kebour, and sound designer David Meschter. Read about the scenic design in Part One of "All Aboard" and the lighting design in Part Two. Below is the completion of the article in Part Three.
The sound department had a very different project on its hands. Load-in began on July 2, 2014, when the various departments had to, as Lincoln Center Festival sound coordinator David Meschter describes, “convert the entire empty cavernous space of the Park Avenue Armory into a venue capable of presenting this world-class opera. We had to be complete by Monday, July 7, for the piano staging of the opera.” Sound designer Mark Grey collaborated with Meschter to achieve the highly specific and nuanced sound required by the production. PRG supplied all the audio and video equipment for The Passenger in association with Simon Nathan of Audio Production Services.
During the load-in period from July 2 to 7, more than 15 trusses were hung, and more than eight miles of power, audio, lighting, and automation cable necessary to serve the entire production in the theatre were laid. Meschter jokes, “We euphemistically referred to this schedule as tight.”
As Meschter explains, “Initially, we had hoped to use the LARES system (provided by the Park Avenue Armory) to tailor the Armory’s challenging acoustic environment, but we realized that we did not have the time to set up, tune, and appropriately time the additional 50-plus channels of speakers.” Instead, Grey chose to use the LARES in a more traditional proscenium-based reinforcement system so that the limited time could be channeled into perfecting the system for the reinforcement of the opera. Grey used a DiGiCo SD7 console with inputs to the SD7 from the LARES stage and input racks used fiber, as the necessary distances from the console to these racks were at the edge of the MADI spec of 100m.
The 16 miked singers had Sennheiser SK 5212 RF transmitters with DPA 4061 mic elements. Grey added six Microtech Gefell KEM 970 line array microphones as area mics on and around the stage. He also used a handful of small diaphragm condenser mics as various area mics within the orchestra. Twenty drops of RTS BTR-800 wireless comms augmented the wired Clear-Com infrastructure and 48 walkie-talkies completed the communication needs.
Meschter also explains that, for the main reinforcement PA, Grey used seven of the Armory’s Frazier 799s across the truss that created the proscenium in five channels and seven 799s in three channels across the delay truss that was over the forth row of the audience seating. Four 599s in two channels were placed on the trusses over the stage for stage monitors, and eight 599s in four channels were hung on the orchestra trusses also for monitors. Meyer Sound M’elodie speakers were used as front fills. Working with Meschter and Grey were Paul Scarbrough and Anthony Nittoli of Akustik, who assisted in the tuning of the system and designed the physical acoustic treatments in the Armory. Steve Barbar was the LARES technician operating the digital processing system.
Unlike in a traditional opera where the orchestra separated the performers from the audience, the creative team of The Passenger was able to remove that divide. Instead, the entire 60-piece orchestra sat stage-left of the scenic ship and camp, which defined the playing space. Of course, this meant that the conductor, maestro Patrick Summers, had his back to the stage for the entire show. More than 24 video monitors were required to allow performers, technicians, and the conductor to follow the action.
The Passenger was a massive undertaking made possible by the collaboration between the creative team, the Houston Grand Opera team, the production department of the Lincoln Center Festival, and the Park Avenue Armory. The Armory allowed the production to transport the audience as no other building could and let the creative team fully realize the ambitious production.
For more, check out the September issue of Live Design, now available for free download for iPad or iPhone from Apple App Store or for Android tablet and smartphone from Google Play.