Hungarian State Opera - Entel Acoustics

About the building

The Hungarian State Opera House, designed by Miklós Ybl, is one of the country’s most important monuments. The building, which was inaugurated in 1884, has undergone several renovations during its long history. In 1912, the ground floor auditorium was extended with two rows of seats, the orchestra pit was made deeper and wider towards the stage, and the ground floor cloakroom was also built. Between 1980-84, in addition to the modernisation and renovation of the service and public areas and the façade the stage machinery was replaced, the orchestra pit was reinforced with a concrete parapet, and the plant building was built, connected to the Opera House by a tunnel at street level. The workshops, the sewing rooms, most of the administration offices, additional rehearsal rooms and the boiler room of the Opera House were moved here.

In 2016, the Hungarian government decided to modernise the Opera House, including the renovation of the façade, upgrading the stage technology and acoustics, improving the comfort of the auditorium, the orchestra pit and restoring the historic spaces. The renovated Ybl Palace reopened to the public on 10 March 2022.

About the project

The renovation of the Hungarian State Opera House was one of the most prestigious acoustic projects in Hungary. In this project, we had the honour of carrying out the acoustic survey, conceptual design and construction design of the building, for the latter two in collaboration with ZDA Architects and the French company Studio DAP. As a result of a very detailed series of room acoustic measurements during the lengthy preparation phase, we determined the room acoustic parameter set for the Opera House as it was at that time and the optimum room acoustic target values to be achieved in the planned state. During the design phase, hundreds of simulations were carried out on a calibrated 3-dimensional room acoustics model to develop the best possible technical solutions, and a number of impact assessments were carried out for the design of the booths, orchestra pit, stage and pews.

Our tasks

Room acoustic condition assessment
Romm acoustic conception design
Room acoustic design

Location

Budapest, HU

Designed floor area

5380 m²