Hearing Loss Case

[bayswater]

The British press is full of stuff about an appeal of a judgement a year ago.

From the Guardian: "The Royal Opera House has lost its challenge to a landmark ruling in the case of a viola player whose hearing was irreparably damaged by noise levels in the orchestra pit while rehearsing Wagner’s Ring Cycle."

The ruling said the Opera House didn't do enough to prevent hearing loss.

I dismissed this when it first came up. Even a guitar player in an R&B band knows not to stand downwind of a horns. Does anyone here play in a symphony orchestra? Isn't hearing loss something everyone understands? Or is this the common fate of viola players?

[terrybritton]

Beyond being fate - it must be their karma.

Terry

[bkshepard]

I played 30 years as a professional symphony musician. Unfortunately, most orchestra musicians can't wear ear plugs as it prevents them accurately hearing the full frequency of their instrument and thus its true tone. Many orchestras will put clear shields in front of the directional brass like trumpets and trombones, but those can only do so much. On a normal concert-hall stage, you can usually reposition people to help mitigate the proximity. However, in an orchestra pit, there is usually not much room to reposition and people are often crammed in quite tightly, especially on operas that require large orchestras like Wagner's do. In those situations your only option to being downwind of the brass is often to not play in the pit--not really much of an option if that's your only source of income, unfortunately.

[bayswater]

So this has been going on for the better part of 200 years with no clear solution? Was your hearing compromised?

[stubbsonic]

Sounds like a reasonable case, since, at that level of musicianship, hearing loss is a significant impairment.

OTOH, it would be a tricky problem to solve.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

So this has been going on for the better part of 200 years with no clear solution? Was your hearing compromised?

What...?

[bkshepard]

So this has been going on for the better part of 200 years with no clear solution? Was your hearing compromised?

Well the really loud orchestra pits mostly started near the end of the 19th century with Wagner, but he actually built a special pit under the stage at Bayreuth that gave a lot of room to the orchestra. Unfortunately, most opera halls are designed for the smaller "Classical Period" orchestra, and not for the much larger--and louder--orchestras of more recent works.

As for my hearing, as a percussionist, I usually had more issues with my own sound levels than with that of other instruments, but yes, I have some hearing loss and tinnitus as a result of those years.

[mikehalloran]

It gets loud down there—more for the celli than basses (I played either) since celli sit lower and basses are often in the back row.

Wagner... The last time I performed ol’ Richard, I was in a production of Siegfried that was double-cast. When I wasn’t singing Wotan (Der Wanderer), I was the double-bass principal. Hearing wasn’t so much my issue as was the sheer physical workout of playing a bass for 4 3/4 hours including a pair of 20 min intermissions. With a comfortable stool, I had a number of seating positions which helped but after that long a performance, my arms and back were sore.

Covered pits are louder—at least the ones I played in over the years. The worst were theater pits where I would play banjo/guitar books. I would normally be placed in front of the drum kit next to the brass. Ouch!