DPA Microphone’s d:screet microphones have been used in one of Nepal’s first opera performances. The microphone was chosen by sound engineer Lucy Peckham, co-partner of Anchorage-based Both Ears Live Sound, to perform in Kathmandu’s harsh environment.
The opera, Arjuna’s Dilemma, by American Composer Douglas J. Cuomo, is based on a story from the Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Gita. It was to be staged outdoors in the world heritage site Patan Durbar Square near the end of the rainy season.
Because of the outdoor venue, an extremely small orchestra (with only nine musicians) and the varied vocal strengths of the company, all the singers and the orchestra needed to be miked, amplified and mixed. Peckham chose DPA microphones for the opera singers, Roy Stevens and Annalisa Winberg, the Hindu Temple singer Gurudev Kamat and the jazz saxophonist Inap Shrestha.
Last spring, after attending a presentation by DPA representatives at the USITT conference, Peckham was convinced DPA was the microphone she needed for the challenging Nepal opera project she was about to undertake. Peckham said: “At the conference, I decided I wanted to use three d:screet 4061 necklace microphones for the singers and a d:screet IMK-SC4061 instrument microphone kit with a d:screet 4061 omnidirectional microphone for the saxophone.â€
Because of the outdoor venue, an extremely small orchestra (with only nine musicians) and the varied vocal strengths of the company, all the singers and the orchestra needed to be miked, amplified and mixed. Peckham chose DPA microphones for the opera singers, Roy Stevens and Annalisa Winberg, the Hindu Temple singer Gurudev Kamat and the jazz saxophonist Inap Shrestha.
Peckham concluded: “I used d:screet 4061s for this project because of the quality of the sound they reproduce. Though the whole opera was amplified and mixed, it had to sound as if it wasn’t. It had to sound naturally acoustic, as opera should, and thanks to DPA, it did. The accuracy and transparency of sound reproduction without distortion, and the significant feedback rejections, are absolutely amazing.â€