Pat Heigham

I wonder if anyone else saw/heard this?

I was puzzled that the TV broadcast was 30 mins behind the R3 live airing. Then I realised that it was because of deleting the interval section. Must have been a hectic edit!

Bernie Newnham

I think those things are all recorded solid state these days – play back and edit at the same time as record. So just start playing back at on-air time and delete the interval as you go.

Pat Heigham

I was slightly disappointed, as it was plugged as ‘semi-staged’. More like nearly fully staged, as the orchestra barely featured.

Good sound balance, though, but visually buggered by the earpiece/cheek mics. I wonder what the difference would have been if the mics were fitted, hidden, in costumes.

Dave Plowman

A vast difference. Try putting your ear (with the other closed off) on someone’s chest while they talk. Best to get permission first.

Personal mics on the chest are the spawn of Satan where vocal quality is concerned.

Nick Ware

Couldn’t agree more.

Barry Bonner

There were three ex-BBC sound supervisors living it up in a Grand Tier box at Friday’s John Wilson Prom of “Oklahoma” (the Matinée performance) who thought it was excellent in every aspect! 

Nick Ware

Who were the other two?

Martin Eccles

I was in the hall for the matinee performance of “Oklahoma”, which telly used as a dress rehearsal for the evening recording / tx.

It was a performance for the people in the Royal Albert Hall, most of whom would not be close enough to notice the radio mics.  There were 31 radio mics.

The use of hidden microphones would have been a very different story… They had to survive 3 hours of acting, costume changes, dancing and even fighting on the floor.

There were no noise problems at all with the radio mics, just couple of late fades by the in-house PA mixers.

As for the “semi staging” it told the whole entertaining story.

How boring it would have been with the 11 soloists,  in evening dress with a stand mic each, in a line, in front of the orchestra.

If it was theatrically “fully staged” there would have been a lot more scenery and the orchestra would be out of sight in a pit !  So much for seeing the second desk lady first violinist then !

It was created in just 10 days of outside rehearsals for the actors, dancers and singers.

There was a credit for EVS Operator who must have looked after the digital playout and the time-shift for interval feature.

I recorded the evening transmission and Andy Payne, Matt Charles and the sound crew, only credited on every prom as the Sound Alliance (their request) always do a brilliant job on the 5.1 surround sound telly mix.

John Wilson and his merry band really enjoy playing big film and musical scores.
A jolly romp of a show with glorious, soaring music and songs, and good triumphing over evil.

Tony Millier

I was the third, very retired, Sound Supervisor at the performance, and really enjoyed it.

Pat Heigham

Glad you enjoyed the concert – The John Wilson Orchestra is always a delight and a bloody good band.

I was going to make the same observation as Martin did. A theatre/RAH audience is not close enough to be worried by the cheek mics: it’s different when cameras can hold a BCU on the artistes’ faces, thus I find them irritating, although those particular mics are the right choice for a number of reasons, including:

• constant mouth-mic distance; no off mic on head turns
• as close to mouth to minimise colouration of orchestra and PA

Agreed that a ‘full’ staging would have involved scenery etc.  But we didn’t see enough of the orchestra, sadly.  The second desk lady violinist is lovely, she always looks as she’s  thoroughly enjoying it. I believe her to be Ruth Rogers

I did wonder if she was Mrs. Wilson, as she’s always in the line-up.

For my money the best player is lead trumpet Mike Lovatt – brilliant. I wonder if the lead sax, Howard McGill has the nickname of ‘Tin-Tin’ as he sports the same quiff!

If anyone wants a disc of the show, let me know (actually probably two discs). I didn’t notice the edit out of the interval, it was undetectable.

I was searching for a list of the musical numbers, and came across this:
http://jasoncochran.com/articles/oklahoma-is-one-of-the-dirtiest-movie-musicals-of-all-time/

I think the man is seriously warped, or has a hang-up about sex, somehow!

John Nottage

At last we found a spare 3 hours to watch our recorded copy of John Wilson’s “Oklahoma!” prom.

Fabulous – loved the "semi-staging", the cast, the singing, the audience reaction – everything.

Technically almost flawless too.

Great songs every few minutes: "They don’t write songs like that any more" – sorry “La La Land”; no contest.

I rather liked the way many of the female singers spoke American and then sang pure "Home Counties". Such wonderful clear diction from everybody too: nobody could complain of mumbling or needing subtitles. The drama world could learn a thing or two there. Only one problem – now I can’t get the songs out of my head!