The set, made in China, replicates Beijing's Forbidden City: 175m wide, 70m deep and 35m high, it features six Chinese pavilions, 700sq.m of stairs and 4,000sq.m of space for the artists, on several levels of stage. The stage set also includes 3,750sq.m of suspended panels, five screens for sub-titles and close-ups and 1,850 lighting fixtures. Making its debut at the venue, L-Acoustics' German V-Dosc partner Westfalen Sound supplied the sound equipment, with certified V-Dosc engineer Mattias Funke at the head of the crew.
The scale of the production made this a complex job, and following spectacular productions of Aida (2001), Verdi's Requiem (2002) and Carmen (2003), expectations were high. Renowned audio consultant Alain Français, a veteran of many large scale and high profile productions, became involved in the project, and helped the Westfalen sound crew to meet the heightened expectations.
Sound design for Turandot was a real challenge. Based on past experience with Aida and Verdi's Requiem at the Stade de France, it was clear that for an in-the-round stage configuration, a distributed, field-level, ground-stacked design gives the best result in terms of audience coverage and image localization. However, for Turandot, the stage was located at one end of the stadium. Paul Bauman, director of L-Acoustics' technical support, said that impressive image localization was a key aim: "For this reason, a large format six-array FOH system, reinforced by side and rear delay positions, was proposed," he said. With L-Acoustics' experience of the extreme long-throw capability of V-Dosc for classical sound reinforcement, the technical support team was confident that this would work.
Grammy Award-winning sound engineer Stan Taal, who has worked with Westfalen on various large-scale projects over the past two years, worked with a total of 76 V-Dosc, 24 dV-Dosc and nine MTD115b cabinets on the show. 64 of the V-Doscs formed the main PA; flown arrays of 14 units, flanked by further arrays of nine units, were positioned left and right of stage. 24 dV-Dosc cabinets provided side delays, and two stacks of six V-Dosc each were used for rear delays. The MTD115b coaxial speakers were positioned on the stage, as front-fills.
The main L/R system provided coverage for the majority of the stadium and acted as the time alignment reference for all other arrays. The offstage LL/RR were primarily focused on the second tribune (middle ring) of the stadium while the offstage LLL/RRR arrays were for the first tribune section. Side hangs of dV-Dosc were used to reinforce the second and first tribunes towards the rear of the stadium, but were primarily intended to provide sound reinforcement for the corners - typically the most difficult area of the stadium to cover correctly. Two stacked delay positions of V-Dosc complemented coverage for the rear of the stadium; ground stacking was acceptable here since the orientation of these positions was directly in line with the stage and image localization was correct.
French national press reviews have praised the sound design, with many saying that this is one of the best results at the Stade de France to date, giving the audience the sensation of being surrounded by the Forbidden City itself.
