Recording Penthesylea

Penthesylea is a world creation of the opera composed by French Composer Pascal Dusapin.  He often works with a lot of sound effects and electronic insruments in combination with a full symphonic orchestra.  For this production there was also a Cymbalum in the orchestra pit.

Amplification

Some instruments were amplified, some with effects.  On the Harp there was a Beyer Dynamic M88, we choose this microphone to eliminate as much as possible the bleed from the cymbalum.  On the Flute there was a KM150 and in front of the conductor was installed an ORTF Schoeps. Some singers had wireless microphones for amplification too.


In the hall we installed a Yamaha  CL5 with a Dante connection to the audio playback Computer and an optocore connection to the amplifiers and fold back system.  Apart from a full FOH system, there were on each level 8 d&b E3 for surround sfx and on stage 8 d&B T10.

Recording

On the Strings we had 4 DPA 4006, on the Double basses a U87 and a C414.  Flute, Clarinet, Oboe and Bassoon had a KM184 per section.  French Horns,Trumpets and Trombone had a MKH40.  For the Cymbalum we picked a DPA 4006 and for the Harp we added a KM184 close to the M88 that allready was installed.  On the PErcussion we installed 2 x C414 and 2 x KM140.  There were also 2 x 4011 as a large spaced pair, pointed away from the musicians to have as much as indirect sound as possible.  In the Hall we hung  a pair of Schoeps MK2 and a pair of C414 for surround sound.

On stage we installed 6 Schoeps MK4 on the footlight.  The 2 cardio's in the center were 90° (NOS) .  This works well when you need to capture a choir on stage.  In addition to this there were 2 Schoeps Hypercardio and 2 x MKH416 in the set.  Unnecessary to add that all singers had a wireless microphone.