The acoustic influence of the scenery on the audience sound perception: the case of the ancient theatre of Syracuse

Known in the past for its spectacular acoustic characteristics, the ancient theatre keeps today an important role as a modern stage: during the summer season many important theatrical events are organized in the frame of its ancient ruins, keeping alive a tradition that attracts people all around the world. But, without doubts, the actual conditions for the audience are deeply changed, affected by “modern” noises and damaged situation of the theatre itself. The insertion of the scenery elements has also to be considered as a variable that can modify the sound propagation in the theatre, with better or maybe worst results. In this article a research conducted on the acoustic perception of the audience of the Greek theatre of Syracuse is presented. A parametric study realized through a technical software (Odeon ® version 12.1) has been performed considering different scenery conditions, from the empty theatre and by adding different scenic elements to evaluate their influence on passive acoustics. In a first study, the three-dimensional model considered was built based on the scenery realized by OMA in 2012 for the 48th Edition of Classical Plays at Syracuse’s Theatre. Lately, the comparison between the condition with and without the scenery allowed establishing a few acoustic guidelines for the scenic design. The result of these first two studies was the proposition of scenic elements that allow the preservation and the improvement of the original acoustic apparatus. In this work, the comparison through auralization of the different conditions of the theatre provides interesting suggestions on the way toward an efficient scenic design and aims at satisfying the audience acoustic needs and at a deeper fruition of the theatrical experience nowadays. In particular five different conditions were tested: I. Empty condition, II. OMA’s scenery, III. A scenery based on the re-elaboration of the historical configuration, IV. A scenery developed for modern theatrical performances, V. Empty condition with loudspeakers.