On a balcony overlooking the chamber, an orchestra tuned their instruments.
An orchestra will tune to an A of 440 Hz.
The orchestras of Beethoven's time, for example, tuned nearly half a tone lower than the modern standard.
In practice the orchestras tune to a note given out by the oboe, and many oboists use an electronic tuning device.
The preparations have every one been justified, The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal.
In Verdi's time, no opera house or orchestra tuned to A 432.
Child actors bustled through the corridors, one on a scooter, as the orchestra tuned their instruments.
He leered briefly at his audience as the orchestra tuned, a particularly outrageous party crasher who has gotten past the butler and made himself at home.
In Berlin, orchestras tune to an A around 448 hertz.
"They will play at a lower pitch; 'A' tuned to 415, as opposed to 440, which is what most modern orchestras tune to," Mr. Crawford said.