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Originally Posted by
tourtelot
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Mark. Are you recording the Boston Lyric? I think that large opera ensembles that have the budget for a full-on production, like the Met, are using a combo of body mics and hall/stage mics for their television (PBS) shows. Nice work if you can get it.

The Seattle Opera broadcasts their shows on the local classical music FM and only recently was persuaded to abandon their former "freebie" engineer for paid audio production. I think we get excellent results; maybe 20-25 inputs and rarely a body mic.
Doug,
Ironically, we don't do any recording in Boston. In the last few years we've done about 30 productions (Both commercial audio and Video/TV) in LA, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Wolftrap, Michigan Opera Theater and Glimmerglass. Most of our productions are for commercial release, so we get as many inputs as we need, as long as nobody can see them... My biggest obstacle these days is projected sets. In theses situations we are forced to use wireless to get something that is viable in the marketplace. If the director sees light bouncing off a microphone, we typically have to fight to keep it. Often the mains are obscenely high and just good for ambience. My footlight mic system and pit wall mics make up the bulk of the picture, With the wireless filling the clarity on the voices and hanging stuff just adding space. A typical production is north of 80 inputs with anything from 25 to 40 inputs on the orchestra.
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During COVID, there have been some video performances at Benaroya and not the Opera House. The Benaroya crew has been doing those and I have heard no news (or seen any shows) other than they keep getting interrupted by COVID positives. Ugh! What a time.
We had 3 different productions go down the drain on short order due to Covid last fall and this spring.
All the best,
Mark