The best seat in the ROH?

[Geoff]

(Acoustically speaking, anyway)? Here is what might be a light-hearted answer but which has been issued by ROH itself:

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy8YH1UMxu5/

 

Anybody sit there regularly?

[Sophoife]

I noticed that the whole video focused on sound. Fantastic, but what about sightlines?! I mean, some of the SCS standing places have tall stools in front! Fabulous for the stool sitters, not so much for the stander.

[Emeralds]

I've sat there before. Depends on whether the auditorium is fully sold out or not. If it's sold out, it isn't.  The best seats for the sound when the house is full are Balcony A10-15 and A71-76 or Lower Slips A90-95 and A20-25. That's because in those seats one is near enough the orchestra and high up enough for all the different instrument sounds to travel up as a collective whole while still being able to pick out the individual character of each solo instrument or instrument section when they are playing tutti (together). They won't be the best for sightlines of course. And different people have different priorities and preferences for sightlines eg facial expressions vs lines of ballet positions vs seeing the corps de ballet patterns in Nutcracker/Swan Lake/Giselle etc

 

Even when half full, that Amphitheatre seat in that clip is still not the best acoustically- although it is a good seat if there is a lot of fortisimmo in the scores- recently a couple of opera conductors have taken to insisting on volumes that are much louder than they are usually played (for them and also compared to other conductors)! 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Emeralds

[JohnS]

I’m not sure why you have a preference for Balcony sides rather than the centre block @Emeralds. I rather like A33 or A53 for sound, ease of access as aisle seats, and value for money as there’s a discount for the slightly restricted view given the safety rail to either the left or right depending on the seat. I certainly enjoyed the Ring from A 53 last cycle. For Standing, I think Balcony D33 astonishingly good which I had for Das Rheingold a few weeks ago. In the Stalls, I’d go for H3 or H4 (H5 and H6 tend not to be available until perhaps a week or so before the performance): upper strings/woodwind rather than brass/bases/percussion; sufficiently far back not to have one instrument dominate; above the side gangway so a clear view of the stage (unless exceptionally tall people are in row E); close enough to the stage to see faces and feet; and best view for curtain calls (unless audience members congregate on the stairs rather than exit). And having named these seats, it’s very good occasionally to sit in them.

[Timmie]

Interesting topic. I haven’t sat in that particular seat but I do find the central region of the amphi to be the best for sound. Amphi F48 is one of my favourites, good sound and end of row.

 

For the reasons JohnS listed I think Stalls H6 is the best seat in the house, never actually sat there though 😞.

 

Worst seat for sound I’ve been in is Orchestra Stalls A29, at the very front and extreme right. Next to all the noisy instruments so I couldn’t hear anything else a lot of the time!

[Bluebird]

1 hour ago, Timmie said:

Interesting topic. I haven’t sat in that particular seat but I do find the central region of the amphi to be the best for sound.

 

I’m astonished how differently we all react to the acoustic in the ROH.  According to the video, "Seat 56 of row M is,acoustically speaking, said to be the best seat in the theatre". Unless the central block of row M has a completely different acoustic to the aisle seat of the side block, (M47,) I find this hard to understand.

 

For many years I sat on the aisle of the side block in either row L or row M (i.e. mid amphitheatre) and, by chance, got a last minute ticket in the front side amphitheatre for a Jette Parker Young Artists concert.  The acoustic there was absolutely revelatory.  It was so much better than it had been in the mid amphitheatre that I felt as if I was in a different auditorium. 

 

From my experience, the best amphitheatre acoustic (not including the slips) is in the rows in front of the overhang (A-E).  I have no experience of the Lower Slips but, in the Upper Slips, the acoustic is even better than the front side amphitheatre.

 

Where seats under the overhang are concerned, my personal experience is that the very back rows have a far better acoustic than the middle rows.  Soon after performances restarted post pandemic, I had a rehearsal seat in row U for an opera rehearsal.  Seeing there were so many empty seats in front of me, I moved down to row R for the second act.  The acoustic was so much poorer there that I moved back to row U for the third act.  It’s been suggested to me that this is because the sound bounces off the back wall in the rear amphi.  No idea if this is correct.

 

It seems to me that reactions to acoustics must be very subjective and must vary from person to person. Re what JohnS says about the front row of the Balcony, I have sometimes sat in A33 or A53 for a rehearsal and then experienced the same production in the front side amphitheatre.  Maybe not everybody would agree but, to my ears, the acoustic is definitely superior at the higher level.

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by Bluebird

[Timmie]

I guess it’s hard to do a meaningful comparison and it’ll vary a lot from production to production as well. I was at a socially distanced Magic Flute with lots of empty seats and found the front of the balcony much better acoustically than the back which I guess is the muffling effect of the low ceiling.

(Other patrons were very few and the usher was happy for us to move about a bit).

[LinMM]

I think the Row A seats in the Balcony which start around A.54 on the right side ( not sure on the left) must be pretty good as you are not so much under the overhang there. 
I usually go for Row D as it’s cheaper but when in those slightly to the side row A seats (54-62 for complete view of stage) I think the sound has been pretty good from there. 

[Emeralds]

On 29/10/2023 at 10:46, JohnS said:

I’m not sure why you have a preference for Balcony sides rather than the centre block @Emeralds. I rather like A33 or A53 for sound, ease of access as aisle seats, and value for money as there’s a discount for the slightly restricted view given the safety rail to either the left or right depending on the seat. I certainly enjoyed the Ring from A 53 last cycle. For Standing, I think Balcony D33 astonishingly good which I had for Das Rheingold a few weeks ago. In the Stalls, I’d go for H3 or H4 (H5 and H6 tend not to be available until perhaps a week or so before the performance): upper strings/woodwind rather than brass/bases/percussion; sufficiently far back not to have one instrument dominate; above the side gangway so a clear view of the stage (unless exceptionally tall people are in row E); close enough to the stage to see faces and feet; and best view for curtain calls (unless audience members congregate on the stairs rather than exit). And having named these seats, it’s very good occasionally to sit in them.

I sat A33 and A53 before and the sound had dissipated a bit by then, JohnS.... although it still sounded lovely in those seats, by the time I moved beyond A70 and A16 the quality of the sound (same conductor, production and orchestra) had changed- you can hear it but the individual "quieter"  instruments (eg flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, harp, cello) are not as sharp. 

 

What score you are listening to also matters- I was comparing ballets: Sleeping Beauty, Jewels, Nutcracker,Swan Lake  Manon, Giselle, which all sound better if you're in those seats in the Balcony and Slips I mentioned. You really get a 4D effect which is amazing to experience. Of course, the Slips won't be great for ballet sightlines....! 

 

The scores of Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella have a bigger sound and travels quite well to most seats, so doesn't matter where you sit. (Before 1997 ie the renovation, Romeo and Juliet used to sound very "boxed in" if you sat in the Stalls but now that the orchestra pit is more opened up that no longer happens so it is much better). With Wagner scores like Rheingold, further away is much better, but for Werther, Don Carlo, Zauberflote, Nozze di Figaro, most of the Handel operas (eg Alcina), La Boheme and most of the Puccinis, nearer is preferable for me, to be able to hear the subtleties in the scores and a lot of the pianissimo in both the arias and the music. Fidelio was good both further away or nearer the stage. Of course,  these differences matter more if one is watching a production more than once-  if it's one's first time or only time, it doesn't matter.....just get in and see it!  😀

Edited October 30, 2023 by Emeralds