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| - I first saw an opera there while I was a drama student at Davidson College in 1974. I've seen enough performances of various types there over the years to conclude that the experience you'll have doesn't depend on who performs in it, so much as how good their sound reinforcement system is.
Without a really good sound system, and a knowledgeable engineer at the controls, in this hall you get to see lips move, but you *hear* a muddy mush of music and muffled mumbling.
Okay, enough alliteration. This place is old, drab, and acoustically dead in many parts of the house. It was all those things in 1974, and is all those things now. While it's been through a few upgrades that improved it slightly, it is still sorely lacking.
However, if the visiting act brings their own audio system, you *may* get to hear well enough to appreciate the performance. If the performers are mic'ed and the sound is mixed by a professional and is delivered through the correct speaker array, you won't notice a sound problem.
Compare the sound of this hall with Belk Theatre, McGlohan Theatre, Duke Family Performance Hall at Davidson, or even some of the high school auditoriums in town, and you'll know what I'm talking about. It is possible to design a building with decent, even near perfect acoustics. This isn't one of them.
For its potentially poor sound, and its drab, cold surroundings, I'd avoid this hall.
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