Advanced French technology and exceptional craftsmanship were at the heart of Idomeneo, re di Creta, the new production at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, staged this summer at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché.
Amadeus developed and installed a tailor-made sound system within the historic theatre to subtly shape its acoustic characteristics. Thirty-five microphones processed through HOLOPHONIX and over fifty loudspeakers created an innovative sound environment, supporting a live orchestra, choir, and onstage performers while preserving the venue’s unique character.
Raphaël Pichon, musical director and conductor of the Pygmalion Orchestra and Choir, requested a system that would combine active acoustics with sound spatialization, maximizing the audience’s experience of the opera.
The work carried out in collaboration with Amadeus ’ teams could be compared to a kind of sound restoration,
explains Aurélie Granier, Head of the Audiovisual Department and sound engineer.
The Théâtre de l’Archevêché is one of the most evocative historical spaces in the old city. Its rear stage façade is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. With its towering acoustic shell and high stone walls, the natural acoustics present genuine challenges that orchestras must navigate.
Aware of these challenges, Pichon asked Amadeus to design an immersive acoustic support system for the audience.
We created a tailor-made toolbox to achieve more homogeneous and detailed sound coverage for the orchestra, soloists, and choir, while also enhancing the theatre’s natural reverberation,
Aurélie Granier explains.
The resulting system combined the HOLOPHONIX spatial sound processor, developed by Amadeus in collaboration with IRCAM, with an electro-acoustic network of over fifty loudspeakers, some entirely custom-made and clad in natural stone to remain virtually invisible on stage.
The theatre’s reverberation time is shorter than in venues designed for lyrical performance and varies across seating zones, including rear seats, balcony, and sub-balcony,
recalls Clément Vallon, musician and sound engineer supporting the Festival team during creation.
Our approach was to harmonize the orchestra, choir, and soloists in timbre, volume, and reverberation, creating a coherent and immersive sound field throughout the theatre.G iven the system’s complexity, only parametric reverberators were used, eschewing convolutional or regenerative solutions,
explains Adrien Zanni, researcher and developer at Amadeus for the HOLOPHONIX project.
The electro-acoustic setup comprises fifty-two loudspeakers, facing, surrounding, enveloping, and at times overhanging the audience to recreate virtual acoustic reflections as naturally as possible while supporting singers and musicians.
Vallon describes the microphone setup and HOLOPHONIX integration:
The microphones on the stage frame were dedicated to the reverberation system and to reinforcing the sub-balcony. A ramp of six DPA 4011 microphones, discreetly integrated with preamplifier cables, was complemented by hyper-cardioid microphones on each side of the stage, suspended microphones above the stage, and additional microphones at a distance. All signals were processed through HOLOPHONIX as virtual sources, preserving natural localization while generating early side reflections where needed. For the orchestra, we used zone-mixing, creating four pre-mixes sent to the HOLOPHONIX processor as four virtual sources at orchestra level.
All loudspeakers placed against the theatre’s stone walls received a custom finish of natural stone powder. Amadeus worked closely with heritage conservation specialists to select shades and materials that rendered the speakers nearly invisible.
Applying modern audio techniques to classical works is a delicate challenge,
Granier concludes.
It requires addressing contemporary issues of perception and sensation while respecting the expectations of both artists and audiences. In our digital era, the greatest challenge is knowing how to exercise restraint, using the tools at our disposal with wisdom and subtlety.
