Turandot, last Giacomo Puccini's three act opera, has been performed in Paris, "Stade de France" on Saturday, May 28th, in front of a 38'000 people audience.

This huge production involved 60 dancers from China's National Dance Ensemble directed by Chen Weiya, one of the most renown and influential Chinese choreographer, 80 musicians from the Philharmonic Orchestra of Budapest, directed by Jànos Act, 120 chorus singers from the Budapest's National Opera Choir, and 9 opera soloists, including among others Irina Godeï (Turandot), Victor Lutsiuk (Calàf), et Yao Hong (Liù). All these on-stage performers have used a mere 1000 embroidered costumes.
The totally made in China scenery has enabled the audience to nip through to China for one night as it is the exact copy of the Forbidden City's palace. It represents a true technical challenge: 175 meters wide, 70 meters deep, 35 meters high, for a total of 700 squared meters of stairs, 6 Chinese pavilions and 4000 squared meters of evolution for the artists, on several levels of stage. In addition, 3750 squared meters of suspended panels, 5 screens for sub-titles and close-ups and 1850 lighting units.

Zhang Yimou (director of Hero, Raise the Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers, …) was the director. The show has already been performed in Asia, for more than 500'000 people.

For the show at Stade de France performance, the L-ACOUSTICS German V-DOSC Partner Westfalen Sound was in charge of the sound equipment. Mattias Funke, Certified V-DOSC Engineer, was at the head of the crew. Considering the size of the operation, Westfalen needed to come to Paris with most of its L-ACOUSTICS inventory and has achieved on May 28th its first operation at the Stade de France ever.

The operation was kind of complex due to the size of both the set and the audience. Added to this, the technical expectations where placed very high by the production team and the local production represented by Mr Giletta, Stade de France's General Manager: Turandot was performed after recent significant classical events being Aida (2001), Verdi's Requiem (2002) and Carmen (2003), each of these shows being particularly spectacular and benefiting from an increasing overall quality. It was impossible to disappoint the audience. Consequently, French renown audio consultant Alain Français has also actively participated to the implementation of the system. Among many noticeable operations Alain has achieved, we can mention the 100th Anniversary of the Eiffel Tower in 1989, 1992 Albertville Olympic Games, D-Day Ceremony in Normandy in 2004 and Verdi's Requiem at Stade de France in 2002! Owing to his expertise and knowledge of the venue, Alain has made it possible to resolve some difficulties, which has enabled Westfalen sound crew to ensure the quality of the performance, in accordance with the production's expectations.
Besides, the Sound Engineer was Stan Taal. His main job was to produce and record classical music at Phillips Records. Since a couple of years he is the engineer of a lot of huge out and indoor operas. He was mainly working for the producer Dutch Companions. Westfalen has worked with him for two years now, on various productions like AIDA and got the best references with him. He has won the 41st Annual Grammy® Awards in 1999, for the " Best Opera Recording " (for both Prokofiev's Betrothal In A Monastery and Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa).

The sound equipment needed to be at the top for such a challenging show. A total of 76 V-DOSC®, 24 dV-DOSC and 9 MTD115b were used for the show.
64 V-DOSC cabinets were used for the Font of House; a flown array of 14 units on each left and right sides of the stage, and an additional flown array of 9 boxes for each LLL and RRR of the stage. For side delay, 24 dV-DOSC were used (2 arrays of 12 cabinets for each side). Stacked V-DOSC were used of rear delay (2 stacks of 6). And 9 MTD115b coaxial speakers were positioned on the stage, as front fill.

Sound design for Turandot was a real challenge as well. Based on past experience with Aida and Verdi's Requiem at the Stade de France, it was clear that for an in-the-round stage configuration, a distributed field level ground stacked design gives the best result in terms of audience coverage and image localization. However, for Turandot the stage was located at one end of the stadium, which is not the easiest option. Paul Bauman, Director of L-ACOUSTICS Technical Support explains: "Given the large, impressive stage, it was important that the sound design was equally impressive and the image localization for the audience towards the stage was equally as important. For this reason, a large format 6-array FOH system, reinforced by side and rear delay positions, was proposed". Owing to L-ACOUSTICS experience with the extreme long throw capability of V-DOSC for classical sound reinforcement (already used in stadium configurations with other opera productions such as Aïda or Carmen and also at the Puy du Fou or the Château de Versailles), the Technical Support team was confident that this would work.

The main Left/Right FOH system provided coverage for the majority of the stadium and acted as the time alignment reference for all other arrays. The offstage LL/RR were primarily focused on the second tribune (middle ring) of the stadium while the offstage LLL/RRR arrays were for the first tribune section. Side hangs of dV-DOSC were used to reinforce the second and first tribunes towards the rear of the stadium but were primarily intended to provide sound reinforcement for the corners - typically this is the most difficult area of the stadium to cover correctly. Two stacked delay positions of V-DOSC complemented coverage for the rear of the stadium - ground stacking was acceptable here since the orientation of these positions was directly in line with the stage and image localization was correct.
The main LR FOH system was designed so that coverage started after the 5th row. For the first rows a distributed front fill system consisting of MTD115 coaxial enclosures provided coverage while helping to lower image localization to stage level for the closest members of the audience.

According to the French national press' reviews (Le Figaro, Le Monde, Le Parisien for instance), the Turandot sound design was a resounding success. Many are saying that this is one of the best results at the Stade de France to date; giving to the audience the sensation of being surrounded by the theatre, or should we rather say, the Forbidden City itself: despite the gigantic size of the equipment, the stage, and so forth, they had a sensation of proximity.
Two other magnificent Turandot shows will happen this summer, in Germany: at the Olympic Stadium, Munich on June 25th, 2005, and at Auf Schalke's Arena, Gelsenkirchen on July 9th, 2005.

Westfalen Sound, sound crew: Mathias Funke (CVE), Stan Taal (Sound Engineer), Werner Schmidt, Thorsten Maier, Harvey Janssen, Dunja Geisler, Erich Weihrauch.
Sound design was prepared by Westfalen Sound, with the support of L-ACOUSTICS, and more especially from Paul Bauman, Director of Technical Support.
Audio consultant: Alain Français.