Recent acquisition of some insanely expensive hearing aids aimed at helping me out in cacophonous restaurants has set me thinking about the extent that modern life allows us to filter our intake of noise. This is big business. As sirens wail and Marvel blockbusters and rock concerts crash through legal decibel levels, controlling sound levels has become an increasingly sophisticated operation, abetted by everything from silicone pastilles and the volume-control knob to the wireless earbud.
The National Theatre has virtually given up on ‘natural’ sound
Concert halls and opera houses remain havens of what one might call ‘natural’ acoustics, places where the alchemy of balancing convex and concave surfaces with reflective and absorbent materials creates an environment in which reverberating warmth can coexist with clarity and a whisper can carry as far as a shout. London is blessed with the Wigmore Hall and Royal Opera House in this respect (the Royal Albert, Royal Festival and Barbican halls are generally deemed unhelpful by performers, if not audiences).
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