Abstract Ancient Roman theatres represent a unique cultural heritage which is still used nowadays to host a variety of cultural activities and performances. Acoustic measurements show that the acoustics of these theatres does not always support the listening of music, which is common in modern performances. Although the acoustics of these theatres for modern use performances may be challenging, this cultural heritage offers a unique experience to the audience who can assist to a performance on the same seats once used by Romans. Nowadays, these unroofed theatres, whose walls behind and at the sides of the stage have rarely been restored, are often criticized for the weak sound strength. Moreover, these theatres are often exposed to urban modern background noise. The significant sound absorption due to the presence of the audience on the seating area (named cavea) and to the tapestries used in modern scenes makes challenging to support the acoustic reverberation in these theatres. In this paper, these aspects are described focusing on five ancient Roman theatres located in Southern Italy. The study reports acoustic measurements followed by virtual simulation results. As it was impossible to perform acoustic measurements with full audience occupancy, the presence of the audience was simulated using room acoustic software. The paper compares the acoustic characteristics of these five theatres considering their architectural characteristics, and discusses the role that the material used for their restoration had on their acoustics. Finally, some considerations about some reversible interventions to improve the acoustics of these ancient theatres for modern uses are reported.

中文翻译：

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意大利南部罗马剧院的音响效果及其现代用途的一些反思

摘要 古罗马剧院是一种独特的文化遗产，时至今日仍用于举办各种文化活动和表演。声学测量表明，这些剧院的声学并不总是支持听音乐，这在现代表演中很常见。尽管这些用于现代表演的剧院的音响效果可能具有挑战性，但这种文化遗产为观众提供了一种独特的体验，他们可以协助在罗马人曾经使用过的同一座位上进行表演。如今，这些没有屋顶的剧院，舞台后面和两侧的墙壁很少被修复，经常被批评为声音强度弱。此外，这些剧院经常暴露在城市现代背景噪音中。由于观众在座位区（称为cavea）和现代场景中使用的挂毯，显着的吸音使得支持这些剧院的声学混响具有挑战性。在本文中，这些方面的描述重点是位于意大利南部的五个古罗马剧院。该研究报告了声学测量，然后是虚拟仿真结果。由于不可能在观众满座的情况下进行声学测量，因此使用房间声学软件模拟了观众的存在。本文根据建筑特点比较了这五个剧院的声学特性，并讨论了用于修复它们的材料对其声学的作用。最后，