When Lucy Peckham, co-partner of Anchorage-based Both Ears Live Sound, was
contacted by Greg Mitchell, a design professor at UC Santa Barbara, she knew she
would be a part of something special. Mitchell was looking for a sound engineer to
go to Nepal to work on the first opera ever performed in that country. Peckham
recognized early that she would also need equipment capable of performing under
Kathmandu’s less than forgiving environment. Peckham found the solution she
needed in DPA Microphone’ d:screet™ 4061 Necklace Microphone.

Peckham first heard of DPA after attending a Live Design conference in Las Vegas.
“I started receiving Live Design’s online newsletter and DPA kept popping up in the
articles I found most interesting,’ she says. “One article in particular caught my
attention: DPA microphones were used to mic the entire cast and orchestra of a San
Francisco Opera performance for the purpose of recording it. The idea of using
wireless to capture a live performance astonished me. I did not think there was a
mic out there that could handle the kind of dynamic range that opera singers
produce, while also capturing the qualitative nuance of character and expression
that the singers must achieve. After that, I wanted to know more about DPA.’

Last spring, after attending a presentation by DPA representatives at the USITT
conference, Peckham was convinced DPA was the microphone she needed for the
challenging Nepal opera project she was about to undertake. “At the conference, I
decided I wanted to use three d:screet™ 4061 Necklace microphones for the singers
and a d:screet™ IMK-SC4061 Instrument Microphone Kit with a d:screet™ 4061
Omnidirectional Microphone for the saxophone,’ adds Peckham.

The opera, Arjuna’s Dilemma, by American Composer Douglas J. Cuomo, is based
on a story from the Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Gita. It was to be staged
outdoors in the world heritage site Patan Durbar Square near the end of the rainy
season.

Because of the outdoor venue, an extremely small orchestra (with only nine
musicians) and the varied vocal strengths of the company, all the singers and the
orchestra needed to be miked, amplified and mixed. Peckham chose DPA
microphones for the opera singers, Roy Stevens and Annalisa Winberg, the Hindu
Temple singer Gurudev Kamat and the jazz saxophonist Inap Shrestha.

On one particular night, Peckham was thrown a curve ball when a large street
festival was set up on the other side of the wall of the outdoor venue. “As part of
the festival, there were multiple drummers, instruments and several amplified
vocalists,’ adds Peckham. “With the conductor’s, composer’s and director’s
permission, that single night I raised the overall volume of the show significantly to
drown out the distraction of the street festival. Arjuna’s Dilemma became a rock
opera that night! There was no feedback at all and though the opera singers were
amused, no one’s performance suffered either. The quality of their vocal
amplification was completely unchanged and they were still comfortable with the
sound.’