Wanderlust #1: Phantom Opera

Phantom Opera by Peter Lenaerts

 

There’s a ghost (or two) at the Sydney Opera House. It lurks in the halls and ceilings, and calls out ever so quietly that you don’t hear it unless you’re all alone in the building, late at night or in the small hours of the morning. In the Concert Hall it hums an A perfect enough to tune an orchestra to. In the Joan Sutherland Theatre, it shrieks in discord.

Where do these sounds come from? What produces them? And do they in their turn produce the stories and myths?

We are a visual species, often unaware of the impact of small, invisible sounds on our moods and behaviour.

The Sydney Opera House is famous for its looks and infamous for its sound(s).
Architecture is still a mostly visual medium, even though no building is ever quiet. From their structure and infrastructure to their surroundings, buildings hum, drone, whistle, shriek and hiss.

Phantom Opera is an exploration of the sounds of the Sydney Opera House—with a particular focus on the quiet and the acousmatic – and a search for the reasons, origins and stories behind these sounds.

 

Peter Lenaerts is a Belgian sound artist active in the fields of performance art and contemporary dance. He’s fascinated by empty spaces and invisible or acousmatic sound. He strongly believes that in a culture dominated by visuals, nothing is as powerful, intense, and rewarding as simply listening.
He lives and works in Sydney.

 

Credits

Produced by Peter Lenaerts

Sound Engineer: Peter Lenaerts / Mark Don

Commissioned by ABC RN’s Soundproof.

Many thanks to Miyuki Yokiranta & Rosa Gollan