Last year the New York City Opera installed a “sound enhancement” system. After a season to get used to it, how did it work? “The results, to these ears at least, were troubling. On some nights, the opera sounded more or less normal (more when seated in the First Ring, less when seated mid-orchestra). On other nights, one heard odd echoes, bizarre imbalances between stage and pit, voices losing what one thought was natural focus, strange thumps and gurgles. After a while a curious psychological affliction set in: the tendency to listen to the sound rather than the music. A little knowledge can be a distracting thing.” – Opera News