Before my first trip to Bregenz in the summer of 2002, I was very skeptical about the loudspeaker system. I was afraid it would either sound tinny, like a London musical, or ear-splitting like a rock concert. But it was neither of these. It was pleasant, natural, clearly audible but not dangerously loud.
And it was directional. When one of the singers walked across the stage his voice seemed to be moving with him. Sort of like a stereo or quad-something in your living room, but two thousand times as large.
What really convinced me in 2002 was the fact that one of the singers, a Spanish bass named Felipe Bou, was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble at the time. I had heard him sing exactly the same role, Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème, several times that season in Frankfurt, so I had a good idea of what his voice sounded like without a microphone. And on the Bregenz sound system he sounded exactly the same. (He later moved to Leipzig, by the way, where I once heard and saw him as Rodolfo in Bellini’s La sonnambula.)
The audience in Bregenz, 2005, surrounded by 600 loudspeakers
In 2005, I unfortunately did not have this kind of direct comparison, since the only Frankfurt singer on the cast list, Zeliko Lucic, did not perform on either of the two nights I was there. (Because they perform the same opera up to six times per week, they have three different singers for each of the major roles.)
But they seemed to be constantly upgrading the sound system, and I had the impression it sounded even better in 2005 than in 2002 — except for the cheapest seats at the bottom right and left-hand corners, rows A to H, which was not surprising because the loudspeakers surrounding the grandstand (the black band on black stilts, in the photos) did not go all the way down to the shore.
A completely new sound system, BOA 2.0, was installed in 2019, but I haven’t heard it yet. The black band on black stilts is no longer there, having been replaced by twenty-nine newly positioned loudspeaker poles with four loudspeakers each at different levels, to “ensure a balanced sound in all areas” where spectators are seated.
My photos in this post are from 2005. I revised the text in 2022.
See more posts on Bregenz, Austria.
Thanks for visiting my blog ADudeAbikes.com and for the like. That’s cool you’re also into cycling and claasical music; I’m also into it (I play flute badly for my own amusement), and hear opera sometimes. Keep on writing and writing.
It’s a fantastic setting but the mozzies spoilt it for me.
Sorry to hear that the mozzies spoilt it for you. Strangely enough, I can’t recall ever having any problem with them, either in Bregenz or in other places on Lake Constance.
It didn’t seem to matter how much repellent I wore, I still got bitten, lots.