A Rare Event for the Teatro Comunale in Bologna: Acoustic Response without Seats

With advancements in technology, acoustic measurements have become increasingly precise, allowing for a faithful reproduction of the acoustic conditions in opera theatres. The recorded impulse responses have been analyzed for the house of sound in Bologna designed by Antonio Galli Bibiena. This iconic heritage building is undergoing a period of renovation that also involves seats, representing a great opportunity to investigate the contribution of seat absorption to the overall acoustics. The monoaural and binaural acoustic parameters are processed according to standard requirements. The results show that the room response without seats makes the Teatro Comunale very reverberant, with the order of 2.8 s at mid octaves. Besides the traditional acoustic parameters, the acoustic maps highlight the contribution of different architectural elements within an opera theatre, given by the visualization of sound reflections bouncing within a room.