Teatro La Fenice and Teatro Malibran: Bringing the Past and Present Together with RIVAGE PM5

Originally founded in 1792, Teatro La Fenice is one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. Despite having suffered two disastrous fires, each time it has been rebuilt to its former glory. Recently Yamaha RIVAGE PM5 digital mixing systems have brought the recording facilities at Teatro la Fenice and its older sister venue, Teatro Malibran, right up to date.

Located in Venice’s famous San Marco district, Teatro La Fenice is one of the world’s leading opera, concert and event venues, combining its historical legacy with modern innovation. It has a long association with Yamaha audio technology, whose resilience is highlighted by one of the new RIVAGE PM5 systems being used to replace a Yamaha PM1D digital console (launched in 2001).

Meanwhile, the smaller Teatro Malibran - founded in 1678 in Venice - has seen a RIVAGE PM5 system replace the analogue mixing console. Although the Yamaha PM1D was still working flawlessly, the RIVAGE PM5 system is obviously a huge step forward in terms of technology and flexibility. This has allowed Michele Benetello -head of the Teatro La Fenice audio visual department - and his team to update performance recordings to the quality expected by today’s audiences.

“We are committed to the highest possible recording quality, through careful microphone placement, in-depth musical and technical study of the opera, our expertise, live listening to our productions and critical playback evaluation of the results,” he says.

“At Teatro La Fenice, the need was for better microphone preamplifiers and to achieve a more detailed signal, to integrate the Dante protocol for recording and distribution, as well as to adopt a more modern and flexible workflow which includes plug-ins, reverbs, EQs and so on. At Teatro Malibran, it was about making the transition to a digital system and aligning the workflow across both studios.”

The Yamaha Italia technical team visited both venues, carefully evaluating what would be the best solutions, suggesting RIVAGE PM5 as the best combination of facilities, size of mixing surface and ease of use to satisfy both venues’ technical needs and being a significant step up from the previous systems.

“Over time we have built strong trust in the reliability of Yamaha products and the quality of the company’s technical support is always timely and knowledgeable, so the presence of the technical team made it possible to approach the project with complete confidence,” says Michele.

“Yamaha products allowed us to manage this transition smoothly, creating an infrastructure which allows us to interface different environments using the Dante protocol and to control the surfaces remotely for system checks.”

He continues, “The installation brought a clear step forward - the audio results are superior to the past, the technologies have been updated and our workflow has been simplified and modernized, making operations smoother and faster. We are fully satisfied!”