Schenkenberg Opera (Switzerland)

The Schenkenberg Opera is held at different performance locations in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland every three years. This outstanding opera festival not only attracts attention with its high-class performances, but also with its spectacular stage sets. In 2016, Giuseppe Verdi’s “Rigoletto” was performed.

With its modern architecture, Mülimatt Sports Hall in Brugg-Windisch is the perfect backdrop for the “Giuseppe Verdi arena”. The outer core of the hall offers excellent opportunities for magically creating very varied moods with simple light effects.

In 2016, the event organisers and stage architects again relied on Fohhn loudspeaker technology. The desire to integrate the loudspeakers into the stage set to make them completely invisible was a special challenge. Nevertheless, the orchestra’s music was to be directly broadcast to the audience and in a targeted way.

Only the centrepiece of the stage was suitable to ensure optimal positioning of the loudspeaker system – a red and golden gate, a good ten metres high and 14 metres wide. Two Focus modular stacks were installed to the right and the left of this – each consisting of two FM-440 and one FM-110. Focus Modular loudspeakers are high-performance high frequency and low-mid modules with Fohhn Beam Steering Technology: Their vertical dispersion and sound inclination angle can be controlled in real time using intuitive software and can thus be adapted perfectly to the acoustics of the space. Thanks to their sleek design and successful integration behind sound-permeable material, the Focus modular stacks on the stage of the Schenkenberg Opera are completely invisible to the audience.

In order to ensure that the performers’ supporting PA was also completely invisible, the Focus modular modules created a second beam behind the gate which serves the singers at a reduced volume.

We congratulate Megatron Veranstaltungstechnik AG (technical implementation) and Holger Urbach (sound design) on the successful implementation!