It started ten years ago in the Arena di Verona, the place of monumental opera works like Aida or Nabucco, that Italian rental company BH Audio together with Fichtner Tontechnik from Germany joined forces to provide crew and equipment for a breath-taking concert of Jarrett's trio.
Ever since whenever the American pianist along with Gary Peacock on bass and drummer Jack de Johnette perform in Italy it's the same sound team that are used to reproduce their subtle interpretation of Jazz standards. This year was no exception when in July they took to the stage at the Arena Flegrea in Naples.
A d&b audiotechnik sound system, specified jointly by Massimo Carli of BH Audio and Davide Carlotti of d&b audiotechnik Italia was used in the wider than usual 6,000-seat arena. It was because of the width of the arena that the sound engineers were able to utilize a useful and unique feature of d&b's Q1 line array.
It's common knowledge that line arrays often deliver inconsistent sound quality when two columns are flown side by side due to the interference created in the horizontal plane. Instead, the constant directivity behaviour of the Q1 loudspeaker uses a dipole arrangement of the two 10" drivers to extend the pattern control down to 400 Hz. This makes it possible to hang two arrays side by side with a 50-degree horizontal angle between them to create smooth 120 degree coverage.
"We had two columns of Q1s per side each with the smaller inner column aimed to provide coverage for the audience in the centre of the arena," said Carlotti. "As low end sound is always a critical issue for a trio of this balance and precision, the Q-SUBs were configured in CSA mode as Cardioid Subwoofer Arrays at either side of the stage." Each cardioid stack consisted of three Q-SUBs with two facing front and one facing to the rear. For the seats at the very front two C690 loudspeakers provided the necessary image shift to allow the audience to focus on the performers.
On the stage monitor wedges were MAX12s. "The MAX12 is quite a hit in jazz circles where its compact size allows a tighter interplay between musicians," commented Carlotti. "Its natural balance graces all sorts of acoustic instruments with a clarity not sacrificed by sound pressure level which is highly beneficial for these kind of applications." All loudspeakers were powered by d&b's D12 amplifiers and the entire PA system was remotely controlled using the ROPE C software on a Teqsas RECO TX Linux-based tablet and a Cisco wireless router.
Unlike Verona's amphitheatre, which was built around 2000 years ago and designed specifically to perform cruel gladiator games, the Arena Flegrea is a giant theatre custom built for opera performances under the blue sky of Naples. It is part of the Mostra d'Oltremare (Overseas Exhibition) complex that dates back to 1940s when Italy with colonies in Africa had imperial dreams. After the war the area was partly abandoned and began to degrade.
The Arena with a seating capacity of 6.000, in fact one of the biggest in the world, was reopened only in 2001 after a long and troubled reconstruction. The renovation was led by the very architect who had designed the theatre 60 years before, Giulio De Luca (1912-2004) one of the Italian followers of Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architectural philosophy. Hence the open air venue, completely constructed of white travertine stone beautifully blends with the surrounding landscape of cypresses and umbrella pines. This offers a suggestive scenery not only for contemplative Jazz concerts, Naples' renowned Teatro di San Carlo already has plans to bring all the famous operas to the Flegrea and make it a Verona of the south.
(Sarah Rushto
