Does anyone have any direct experience - or know anyone with direct experience - of what the inherent problems with performing operas are in the existing venue?
In essence: the concert hall is where the opera house should be and vice versa. The stage is too small; the pit is also too small to fit big Wagner/post-Wagner orchestras and is acoustically dreadful. My teacher in Sydney was (still is) in the band there and did a lot of work in the orchestra union, organising sound measurements and protection, that sort of thing: it's an OHS nightmare in there. On top of that it robs the orchestral sound of any intensity.
While I was in Sydney they did a Barrie Kosky production of Wozzeck. The orchestra is too big for the pit so Kosky had the idea of putting the orchestra at the back of the stage and having the action take place over the orchestra pit (which allowed some fantastic effects with cutout things emerging from the stage above the pit). I think the entire opera-going population of Sydney was amazed to hear how good the orchestra could actually sound. (And incidentally how well Berg had calculated the balance - even with the orchestra out in the open instead of tucked away you could hear every word.)
