Allowing for ‘a few spares’, the touring production of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical at the Politeama Rossetti theatre in Trieste requires 34 DPA headset mics to accommodate the full cast.

‘The original Australian production of the musical specified DPA Headset Microphones and, having previously experienced the quality of these microphones on other productions, I was more than happy to use them for the Italian tour,’ says show sound engineer, Cristiano Grassini. ‘Their quality is absolutely phenomenal. They sound great, they are very resistant to high sound pressure levels and obviously, because they are so small and discrete on the actor’s faces, they are good for the audience because they don’t detract from the performance.’

‘It is an amazing musical – full of colour and drama, and very funny,’ Grassini says. ‘However, it does involve a lot of costume changes and this is another reason why the DPA Headset Microphones are so useful. More than 500 costumes are used in this production and having a microphone that is comfortable for the actors to wear and very quick to remove does make it much easier to deal with the quick costume changes.’

The musical first opened in 2006 in Sydney before travelling to New Zealand, the UK, Canada and New York’s Broadway. Since beginning its run in Italy last December, it has been to Milan and Rome and has notched up more than 250 performances.

Supplied by Italian distributor M Casale Bauer, the headsets use a combination of DPA 4066 Omnidirectional Headset Microphones and 4060 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones.

Grassini has used DPA Headset Microphones in numerous theatre productions in the past: ‘They always sound good and are just so easy to use,’ he says. ‘In many situations they are simply ideal and, for me, the only microphone choice.’

More: www.casalebauer.com
More: www.dpamicrophones.com