The sound team at the Parco Della Musica Auditorium in Rome recently turned to DPA Microphones’ Reference Standard 4017 Shotgun Microphones to record the audio for a specially commissioned double DVD of two operas that were being performed as part of the Santa Cecilia Opera Studio, a master programme devoted to Bel Canto.
With high quality audio a prerequisite – and with strict instructions from the director that no microphones were to be seen anywhere in the video footage – sound engineer Giacomo De Caterini was initially struggling to work out how he could comply with the director’s brief.
“The director wanted to avoid any microphones that could be visible because he was determined to maintain strict focus on the performers,” De Caterini explains. “Due to bad experiences in the past, especially on video productions where close-up shots revealed poorly concealed microphones dangling from the singers’ wigs, he was very keen not to have any microphones on the singers’ heads. This ruled out the use of miniature microphones such as the DPA 4061s, which we had initially been considering.”
