Recording the opera ‘The Fire of Olympus’ by Tim Benjamin

We had the pleasure of working with the composer Tim Benjamin again, this time on his opera ‘The Fire of Olympus, or On Sticking it to the Man’. The instrumentation comprised of 4 x violins, 2 x violas, cello, double bass, harpsichord, oboe and 4 x singers, tracking everything live over the course of two days. All instrumentation and voices were centered around our Decca Tree in our live room, augmented by additional room microphones and the individual microphones on each individual instrument or voice. We find that this choice of microphone arrangement best captures the orchestra within our live space as they naturally balance themselves with each other in the room. Furthermore, because of the individual microphones on each instrument or voice, it is possible to create a more ‘closer’ sound by bringing those microphones up in the mix where necessary.

The opera tells the story of Zeus, the all-powerful President of Olympus, undermined by activists led by the prankster Prometheus. The accidental theft of fire from the Olympians leads to love, hate, revolution, prison, and anarchy.

Starring: Robert Glyndwr Garland, Michael Vincent Jones, Charlotte Hoather, Sophie Dicks, Elspeth Marrow, Joanna Harries

Written by: Tim Benjamin

Engineered by George Atkins and assisted by Karl Sveinsson