An attempt to rank Italian historical opera houses based on numerical simulations

Due to the complexity of the acoustic field in articulated closed spaces, architectural acoustics is often approached as a reverse-engineering problem: criteria, reference values and analysis methods are extrapolated by comparing results from measurements in a set of case studies. Considering the methods and the results of previous works on Italian historical theatres, the present study shows the results of geometrical acoustic (GA) numerical simulations with the aim to attempt a ranking based on the subjective preference theory. The models were calibrated using several room criteria that had been previously measured in the framework of a measurement campaign performed in Italian theatres. The cluster chosen is intended to represent an adequate sample of case studies relative to different capacities and different design approaches, which were first developed in the seventeenth century.