Francesco Milizia (1725-1798) and The Acoustics of His Teatro Ideale (1773)
Francesco Milizia (1725-1798) and The Acoustics of His Teatro Ideale (1773)
Francesco Milizia (1725-1798) and The Acoustics of His Teatro Ideale (1773)
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Lamberto Tronchin
DIENCA – CIARM, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. tronchin@ciarm.ing.unibo.it
Summary
During the 18th Century several French scientists prior to Pierre Patte proposed a new concept of theatre ar-
chitecture based on a democratic vision of the theatre, which was founded on Neoclassical architecture. The
French vision of theatre architecture recalled the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, designed by Andrea Palladio, and
reintroduced many neoclassical (i.e. Greek/Roman) elements such as columns, semi-circular shapes and a large
balcony in place of box stalls. The new French ideas of theatre architecture did not find many followers in Italy.
The only scientists that accepted this new concept of a “democratic theatre” were the architects Earl Enea Ar-
naldi (Vicenza, 1716–1794) who wrote Idea di un teatro nelle principali sue parti simile a’ teatri antichi all’uso
moderno accomodato del conte Enea Arnald (Vicenza, 1762), and Francesco Milizia (Oria, 1725- 1798), author
of Del Teatro (Rome, 1773 and Venice, 1794) [1]. Milizia wrote his book after having read the Arnaldi’s work
and followed the idea of a semi-circular plan for the theatre with columns and other antiquarian elements. He
was therefore influenced by the Teatro Olimpico architecture in Vicenza and introduced many Neoclassical el-
ements into his conception of theatre architecture. He proposed the Teatro Ideale would solve several problems
that existed in contemporary theatre architecture, including acoustic difficulties. In this paper, the Teatro Ideale
proposed by Francesco Milizia has been acoustically analysed. Using his sketches as a starting point, a numerical
model was created in order to simulate the acoustic behavior of the theatre, as is done today when a modern the-
atre is acoustically analysed. The results from the simulation are presented and commented on, with comparisons
of the acoustic data measured in the Teatro Olimpico, and afterwards rendered by means of 3D auralisation.
PACS no. 43.55.Fw, 43.55.Gx, 43.55.Ka
Francesco Milizia considered Arnaldi’s publication of Figure 1. The Arnaldi theatre – section – Tav II (1762).
great importance, identifying him as an ‘eruditissimo ac-
cademico olimpico’ (very erudite Olympic academician)
and believing the concept was a good idea. Milizia was
also optimistic that the Teatro Olimpico ‘designed by Pal-
ladio, the Vitruvian’ could be considered as a good theatre’
[1].
However, Milizia did not consider the Arnaldi theory
exhaustive enough and a decade later published a more
radical project, which also mentioned the need of acoustic
enhancements of the room. ‘Due to the circular plan and
of the box stalls often in the Italian theatres only whispers
could be heard from those strange people [the singers], and
never could the words be heard’ [1]. Since Milizia also
worked in Rome, he probably knew the work of Gabriel-
Pierre-Martin Dumont [6] and his concept of theatre archi-
tecture, which would be fully realised in French Neoclas-
sicism (Figure 2).
Milizia also introduced French revolutionary themes
into the theatre, writing: ‘Everybody must sit comfortably
and see the scene. Therefore, it is necessary to recall the
semi-circular shape and avoid the box stall’ [1]. Substitut-
ing the box stall with a gallery would have avoided sepa-
rating aristocracy from the common people, therefore mix-
ing all the people together democratically without atten-
tion to social station.
The new ideas of Arnaldi and Milizia were not to be
realised in Italy. All the new theatres, such as Milan (La
Scala, 1778), Venice (La Fenice, 1790), Rome (Tordinona,
1794; Costanzi, 1880) and Naples (San Carlo, 1817) were
instead realised in the Italian style. Only the Teatro Patri-
ottico (now called Filodrammatici), built in Milan under
Napoleonic rule for the Young Republicans (1800), was
provided with a balcony rather than box stalls.
In France instead, many theatres were designed ac-
cording to this new concept, including the Grand Théâtre Figure 2. The Theatre by Gabriel-Pierre-Martin Dumont – 1764–
of Bordeaux (1777-1780) and the Théâtre of Besançon 1766.
(1778–1784, designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux).
of the problems of contemporary theatres. The most im-
3. The Teatro Ideale of Francesco Milizia portant new elements introduced in his Teatro Ideale, with
an audience capacity of 5000, included the semi-circular
In this context, Francesco Milizia published in 1773 his plan, lateral walls and ceilings, cavities and resonators,
book proposing a new Teatro Ideale in order to solve many galleries and new door locations (Figures 3, 4).
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Tronchin: Francesco Milizia and his Teatro Ideale ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA
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ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Tronchin: Francesco Milizia and his Teatro Ideale
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5. Results
The overall acoustic parameters obtained from simula-
tions are reported in Table III. The average was conducted
Figure 6. The 3D model of the Teatro Ideale of Francesco
among all the receivers, homogeneously located in the
Milizia.
room, in the reverberant field and where the parameters
are less position-dependent.
Considering the overall values of the acoustic parame- 6. The acoustics of the Teatro Olimpico
ters reported in Table III, the Teatro Ideale appears as a re-
verberant theatre. However, the numerical values here re- The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza [19] has been considered,
ported do not differ considerably from the values measured since the 17th Century, a reference for Milizia’s architec-
in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, where the reverbera- ture and acoustics. It should be remembered that in the
tion time is approximately 2.5 seconds at mid-frequencies 17th and 18th Century the aesthetic evaluation of theatre
[17, 18]. One other issue was the sound distribution in the acoustics was different from today. For example, one of the
theatre. The circular shape of the main hall could have most important works of Athanasius Kircher emphasised
caused focalisation in the centre of the room. Neverthe- theatre sound effects rather than sound quality [20].
less, the distribution maps of the energy parameters (i.e. Today the dominant opinion is that the Teatro Olimpico
Centre Time or strength) reveal focalisation was limited, is an excellent, resonant theatre. However, this opinion
due to the acoustic treatment on the ceilings and lateral may reflect the qualitative impression of the historic ar-
walls (Figure 7). chitecture of the room rather than purely of its acoustics.
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Tronchin: Francesco Milizia and his Teatro Ideale ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA
Vol. 99 (2013)
30
20
10
-10
-20
-30
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
30
20
10
-10
-20
Figure 8. Plan and Section of the Teatro Olimpico, by Ottavio
Bertotti Scamozzi (1776).
-30
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
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ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA Tronchin: Francesco Milizia and his Teatro Ideale
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Table IV. Overall value of acoustic parameters measured in Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza.
Table V. Acoustic differences between the Teatro Ideale and Teatro Olimpico.
The measurements were conducted by positioning an om- value of STI is almost the same for both theatres, and only
nidirectional sound source, pre-equalised in the frequency Clarity and Centre Time differ between them. The differ-
domain, fed by an exponential sine sweep from 40 Hz to ences between the two theatres are due to the increased
20 kHz [21, 22], a Dummy head (Neumann KU 100) and scale of the Teatro Ideale – having a capability of 5000
a Soundfield microphone (MKV). The sound source was seats it is much larger that the Teatro Olimpico. Nowadays,
located on the stage in front of the wooden scene, while due to conservation reasons, the Teatro Olimpico only ac-
the microphones were located in several positions in the commodates an audience of 400, but in 18th Century it
stalls. The results are reported in Table IV. could host at least 800 people (or more).
It is evident that the Teatro Olimpico is much more re- The architecture of the Teatro Olimpico differs from
verberant than any other Italian-style opera house. For in- Milizia’s proposed theatre in volume and dimensions, but
stance, the Teatro la Fenice, measured in 1997 [23], re- the shape does not considerably differ. The mean absorp-
vealed a Reverberation Time at mid-frequencies of about tion coefficient in Milizia’s theatre is about 0.35 (i.e. 35%),
half the value measured in the Olimpico. thanks to the acoustic treatment that he proposed for the
ceiling. In the Teatro Olimpico the main value is about 0.3
7. Analysis of the results (i.e. 30%). However, this value does not modify to any
considerable extent the acoustic quality of the room.
Since the mean value of reverberation time and other pa- The acoustics of the Teatro Ideale seem to be very sim-
rameters obtained from measurements is not comparable ilar to the Teatro Olimpico, confirming the intentions of
with the same value obtained from simulations, because Francesco Milizia, who considered that theatre as a refer-
of the difference at very low frequencies (31.5 and 63 Hz) ence.
that are due to the frequency response of the (real) loud-
speaker, the comparison between the two theatres should 8. Conclusions
be made from 125 Hz to 8 kHz, and especially between
250 Hz to 4 kHz. Francesco Milizia proposed in 1773 a detailed project for
Comparing the data of Table III and IV, the most surpris- his Teatro Ideale, which was hoped to have improved
ing result is the similarity between Reverberation Times in acoustics, visibility, comfort and spectator inclusion. De-
the two theatres. Apart from 125 Hz, the differences be- spite the large scale of the theatre, the simulation and
tween T15 and T30 simulated for the Teatro Ideale and 3D auralisation demonstrates, two centuries after its con-
measured in the Teatro Olimpico are consistently less than ception, that its acoustics would have been very similar
one second, and at mid-frequencies less than 0.3 seconds. to some of our contemporary theatres such as the Teatro
At 1 kHz, T15 and T30 have the same values. At low fre- Olimpico in Vicenza and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
quencies the difference increases, and only for EDT the Francesco Milizia’s concept of sound quality in theatres
difference is slightly greater. Considering the differences was closer to modern opinions of theatre acoustics than to
between the values reported in Table V, it is evident that the his contemporaries. The sound characteristics of existing
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Tronchin: Francesco Milizia and his Teatro Ideale ACTA ACUSTICA UNITED WITH ACUSTICA
Vol. 99 (2013)
Italian opera houses are much less reverberant than the the- 12th International Congress on Sound and Vibration
atre that Milizia proposed. His concept tried to solve most (ICSV), Lisbon, 2005.
of the acoustic issues that persist to the present day in sev- [11] A. Cocchi, M. Garai, L. Tronchin: Influenza di cavità riso-
eral modern theatres that still require attention. Whereas nanti poste sotto la fossa orchestrale: il caso del teatro
Alighieri di Ravenna. – In: Teatri storici – dal restauro allo
the theatres of the Italian style are acoustically too dry and spettacolo. Nardini (ed.). Fiesole, FI, 1997.
not preferable for musical performance, the acoustic con-
[12] G. Cosentino: Un teatro bolognese del secolo XVIII – Il
cept of Milizia’s theatre is shown here to be far more ad- Teatro Marsigli-Rossi. Garagnani e figli editore, Bologna,
vanced than his contemporary designers and conceptually 1900.
closer to modern theatre acoustic architecture. [13] F. Algarotti: Saggio sopra l’opera in musica. Coltellini,
Livorno, 1763.
Acknowledgement [14] Chevaliere de Chaumont: Véritable construction d’un thé-
âtre d’opéra à l’usage de France suivant les principes des
The author wishes to thank Giorgio Guidotti and Patrizio constructeurs italiens, avec toutes les mesures et propor-
Barbieri for their help during the realisation of the model tions relatives à la voix, expliquée par des reÌgles de
and the analysis of Milizia’s work, and David J. Knight for géométrie, et des raisonnements physiques; secret très-
proofreading this article. He also thanks Angelo Farina for important, et qu’on découvre au public. de Lormel, Paris,
his precious suggestions during the modeling of scattering 1766.
and diffusion in the theatre. [15] A. Farina: RAMSETE - a new Pyramid Tracer for medium
and large scale acoustic problems. Proc. of EURO-NOISE
95 Conference, Lyon, 21-23 march 1995.
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