Splendid cinecast of Otello from the NY Met at the cinema yesterday - loved Sonya Yoncheva`s Desdemona. But I`m prompted to write by the sound balance which was weird. Apart from being significantly too loud (a fault of the cinema, perhaps) the sound was all-embracing as though being fed through some over-enthusiastic surround-sound processor, which made me feel I was sitting in the middle of the orchestra. No hint of realistic theatre sound - music at the front, with general hall ambience. That, coupled with what I suspect might have been some kind of compression boosting the levels of the quieter parts, made me feel distinctly battered by the end. I`ve been to cinecasts before, at other venues and from other sources, without this unpleasant sensation.
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