Re: Last night of the proms
Originally Posted by
ruthio
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It looked absolutely gorgeous didn't it?
Red white and blue lighting all around the gallery arches...
And I loved the the way they had union jacks lit all the way along behind the choir, and the entire area of the massive RAH organ was lit up as a union jack, marvellous.
Yes, the RAH is probably the biggest, and to many the best, concert hall in the land, and boasts the second largest and loudest organ in the country.
If you read about its history, though, you'll find that there were all sorts of problems acoustically when it was first built. Because of its oval shape, it had a strange feature whereby in some areas the sound was loud, yet in others it was almost inaudible. In certain locations, you could even hear any given sound twice separated by a second or two.
Their first attempt at improving the situation involved hanging an enormous velarium just beneath the hemispherical glass roof, the idea being to absorb unwanted sound waves before they could be reflected back down to the audience.
That didn't work very well, so a more effective solution was eventually found which involved a large number of inverted 'flying saucers' suspended from the roof, and which can still be seen. They were certainly visible on the 'Last Night' transmission today.
I believe, when it was first built, it could accommodate 8,000 people. The figure is now rather less due to modern 'health and safety' measures and, no doubt, more 'accommodating' seating for modern (and quite possibly more generously proportioned) bodies!