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OPERA BY TELEPHONE
In 1881 the Paris Opera was
connected via underground lines to
the Electrical Exhibition at the
Palace de L’Industrie, a distance of
some 3km.
Six microphones were placed on
each side of the prompter’s box,
along the balustrade in front of the
stage and connected via the
underground lines to 32 pairs of
Hamer Hall Melbourne. Suspended ‘saucers’ and wall ‘blinds’ for better acoustics. telephone receivers at the exhibition.
Image: Frank Van Straten. An interesting aspect of this
experiment is that equipment was so
Unfortunately the architect is The successful theatre architect of
arranged that the left telephone
compelled to consult the wishes of those the 19th and early 20th centurys usually
(1/p111) receiver was connected to a left
who come not to hear, but to see. turned out variations on tried and true
microphone and a right receiver to a
An echo is usually a fault, but designs. Sound wasn't any more of a right microphone - if an actor
sparingly used (as resonance) it can be problem when many of these venues changed position on the stage, the
pleasing. Mixing consoles can showed silent films with a musical listener heard in effect a stereo
introduce on demand a range of echo accompaniment.
‘broadcast’ and could follow the
types to enhance performance. PIONEERS OF MECHANICAL respective positions of the
The opposite effect is to use drapery SOUND performers! With only 32 people
to ‘deaden’ sound reflections. In some After Thomas Edison introduced his able to listen simultaneously, the
concert halls natural reverberation is Phonograph in the 1870s, he time available for each person to
modified by adjusting the amount of approached the problem of adding hear the opera must have been
sound absorbent material covering the sound to his Kinetoscope films, but limited indeed!
walls. In the Hamer Hall special fabric synchronising the sound and picture The experiment was considered
can be unrolled and lowered for this proved to be a challenge. a success, albeit with an obvious
purpose.
The early Edison Kinetophone was conclusion:
Some early Italian theatres a Kinetoscope viewer fitted with an Whatever perfection may be
exploited natural resonance. In these unsynchronised cylinder player located arrived at with regard to faithfulness
buildings the musicians’ platform was in the base of the machine. By of transmission of instrumental and
constructed from light, resonant timbers September 1895, it had made its way to vocal sounds, hearing by telephone
such as pine, supported on arches with Australia and surprisingly, made its will never compensate for the
space beneath and separated from the debut in Charters Towers, absence of the scenery and the
audience by a railing about 500mm Queensland. (3/p41) actors, their gestures and faces, and
from the edge of the pit. In this way the
Emile Berliner also made a sound will never have that particular
body of the orchestra was isolated and
recording machine, but unlike the Edison charm which comes from the
the floor they were standing on could
cylinders he recorded on flat discs, association of all the attractions
vibrate freely, thus ‘allowing full scope
similar to the records we know today. comprised in a musical or dramatic
to the power of the instruments’. (2/p724)
By 1902, Frenchman Leon representation.
Surprisingly, this innovation was
Gaumont had a tolerably satisfactory
either not known or ignored in the
system for synchronised sound and
initial construction of the orchestra pit
moving picture. He used synchronous
at the Paris Opera (1861). The
electric motors to drive the projector
musicians and their instruments were
and a Gramophone located behind the
near ground level and enclosed in a
screen. In some reports only one motor
rigid iron and wood construction.
(1/p101) was used to belt-drive both projector
Sound quality suffered as a result. (4/p65) Microphone array across the stage
and sound reproducer.
CINEMARECORD 2007 25