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Electronic Music News By Alan Herd

When Sir Cameron Mackintosh decided to halve the number of musicians in his show, Les Miserables, when it moves from London's Palace Theatre to the smaller Queens next month, and replaced them with a "virtual orchestra" in the form of a Sinfonia, 11 humans were essentially replaced by a robot.

This invasion of a machine into the area in front of the stage usually reserved for people is making waves off Broadway too, resulting in an announcement from Local 802 Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians essentially banning the use of the virtual orchestra machine in all future productions of the Opera Company of Brooklyn.

Back in Britain the Musicians Union, an organization tasked with protecting the rights and liberties of UK based musicians, had threatened to strike over the plans, insisting that it will fight the introduction of the Sinfonia in the West End in much the same way that Local 802 has banned its use in Brooklyn.

But in a statment, Sir Cameron indicated that he would be forced to close the show if the dispute was not resolved, going on to state that "one can’t be like King Canute and insist that this technology won’t happen".

"The 11 musicians from the Les Miserables orchestra, which is the maximum that can be accommodated in the Queens orchestra pit, have accepted and signed contracts to move with this production." Said a statement issued by Peter Thompson Associates, on behalf of Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. "Actors Equity has informed their members that they are pleased that any dispute has been avoided and that the production is going ahead."

The Sinfonia, unlike the more traditional self-contained synthesizers such as the Moog Voyager or Nord Lead, is a collection of separate components including samplers, MIDI controller keyboards, flat screen LCD's, audio routers and a couple of high-powered computers at the core.

Built by New York based Realtime Music Solutions, Sinfonia is currently being used in the US touring production of "Miss Saigon" and was also used for the tour of "Music Man" also at the Capitol.