Bowl’s Microphones

I attended the American Ballet Theatre’s “Nutcracker” on Dec. 17 and, while the dancing was wonderful, I was horrified that the theater chose to use microphones for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The result was embarrassing and at times laughable. I hope that the conductor had not spent too much time working in rehearsal to balance the sound among his forces, because the hand at the soundboard made sure that any efforts in that direction were totally in vain.

One could only laugh as the sound engineer tried to keep up with the orchestra. He would hear that the trumpet had the melody, so we would hear the trumpet come blasting out of the speakers. Then from the pit we would hear the strings take over. Five bars later, the engineer would catch up, and strings would blare forth.

Just because the theater has invested millions in sound equipment doesn’t mean they have to use it.

GEORGE YATES

Camarillo