Singing and loudness: a short study with the royal opera house

Recently a collaborative project with the Royal Opera House Sound Study Group has been initiated. The opera singers are based on the Choral Rehearsal Room where an experiment was undertaken to establish the most effective layout to minimise sound exposure was undertaken. As part of the experiment the 48 vocalist were arranged into different five configurations by voice type: soprano, mezzo, bass, and tenors. There were asked to sing the same two minute piece, Cavelleria Rusticana - Easter Hymn. Finally, a different approach was taken and the Choral Master was asked to set the vocal effort to half that previously used and the levels produced were surprising. The paper will present the background to the study, the results including feedback from the performers and the planned future work