Chris Goldscheider is claiming for loss of earnings after sustaining damage from rehearsal noise as loud as a jet engine

A viola player is suing the Royal Opera House after rehearsals for a performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre allegedly ruined his hearing and destroyed his career.

Chris Goldscheider claims that the noise from the brass section immediately behind him in the pit left him with acoustic shock, a problem more commonly experienced by headphone wearers subjected to short, high frequency and high intensity blasts of sound.

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He is claiming for loss of earnings as he says the incident ended his musical career. The ROH denies that it is responsible. Moreover, according to Goldscheider’s lawyer, it claims that the social value of the performance means that potential damage to players’ hearing is an acceptable risk.

Goldscheider claims that his hearing was “irreversibly damaged” during rehearsals for Die Walküre in 2012. According to court documents seen by the BBC, sound levels peaked at about 137 decibels, roughly the same volume as a jet engine.

The noise “created an immediate and permanent traumatic threshold shift”, the BBC reports the court documents as saying. Goldscheider said that as a result, he was left with acoustic shock, symptoms of which include tinnitus and hypersensitivity to noise.

Chris Fry, the managing partner at Unity Law in Sheffield, who is representing Goldscheider, said the condition had brought an end to a glittering career. His client had played on stage with Kylie Minogue and live with the Three Tenors in front of 100,000 people in Barcelona.

“Immediately following this incident, it became so painful for him to hear any sort of noise that he couldn’t play his own instrument and everyday noises became unbearable,” Fry said.

The effects of acoustic shock are physical and mental, Fry explained. Alongside the painful hypersensitivity to sound, Goldscheider has been left battling the emotional consequences of losing his vocation and income, and being forced to sell his home as a result, Fry said.

“His family life has been affected because he feels he can’t support his children through their pursuit of music,” the lawyer continued, adding that even Goldscheider’s joy at becoming a father again had been ruined because the sound of his newborn daughter’s cries left him with noise-induced vertigo.

“Financially, if this case is successful, he will be seeking to reclaim a significant sum for loss of earnings, because his entire life has been dedicated to pursuing music. He has few transferable skills,” Fry added.

According to Fry, the ROH has employed a barrister to draft a legal defence under section 1 of the 2006 Compensation Act, which allows for some health and safety rules to be relaxed if they might “prevent a desirable activity from being undertaken”.

In essence, the lawyer said, this meant that “in this case, because of the majestic sound of the music, the performance, that actually the court should excuse any damage made to the performers”.

A spokesman for the ROH declined to comment on the particulars of the defence, but said in response: “Mr Goldscheider’s compensation claim against the Royal Opera House is a complex medico-legal issue which has been going on for some time and is still under investigation.

“All sides are keen to reach a resolution. The matter is now the subject of legal proceedings, and in the circumstances it would not be appropriate to comment any further at this stage.”

Paul Breckell, the chief executive of charity Action on Hearing Loss, said: “Anyone regularly exposed to noise levels above 85 decibels risks permanent hearing damage, so it is incredibly important to protect your hearing, particularly within industries such as music.

“It is an employer’s responsibility to protect the hearing of their staff under the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act and we would therefore urge employers from all industries to promote ear protection, which reduces noise exposure and could save their staff’s hearing.”

