A German hall is ready to resume concerts
mainThe Hessische Staatstheater in Wiesbaden aims to be the first theatre in Germany the resume concerts after the lockdown, starting Monday.
It claims to have full support of the local health authority, operating under the following conditions:
– Every ticket holder must leave a name, address and telephone number.
– Seats are sold in rows. Places are allocated in the evening. There must be a distance of three seats between neighbors who do not belong to the same household. A row of seats will be blocked between two rows of seats.
– A mouth and nose cover must be worn inside the theater building.
– Hygiene rules, such as sneeze and cough etiquette and a distance of 1.5 m from other visitors and theater staff, must be observed.
– There is a new routing system to ensure minimum distance.
– Admission starts at 7 p.m. The box office opens at 6.30.
– Disinfection dispensers are available in the entrance area and in the toilets.
– The cloakrooms remain closed.
– Sanitary facilities may only be used by one person at a time.
– The restaurant will not be open in the foyer, but in the colonnades. Pre-orders are not possible. The foyer remains closed.
The new normal?
This format killings
all the industry..
It’s a start. Having names and addresses will be invaluable for contact tracing, if needed. It will also be a good test case of the efficacy of the public health procedures being implemented. (Not that I suggest people be regarded or used as a test cohort — but if their participation is voluntary, then by all means use the resulting data to improve future outcomes.)
When vaccines and effective therapeutics become available, then procedures can approach (if not fully attain) the former normal; not before.
What sort of concert is contemplated? If it’s orchestral or operatic, I’d be even more worried about the artists than the audience…
It’s mostly vocal recitals by artists such as Günther Groissböck, Michael Volle, Andreas Schager, Catherine Foster, René Pape, Annalisa Stroppa, Johanni van Oostrum, Daniela Fally, Klaus Florian Vogt and Florian Boesch…
The full programme can be seen here:
https://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/download/26821/ersatzprogramm_18.5._6.6.2020.pdf
Mostly chamber concerts planned.
“I’d be even more worried about the artists than the audience…”
Sure. An audience can easily be replaced. And they were constantly coughing before, so… 😀
Ah, fun times we live in.
I give them credit for trying but, heavens, we do need a vaccine, don”t we?
we don’t need a vaccine, we need a cure!
Medics are working on both.
Normal until there’s a widely available vaccine, or perhaps more likely, therapeutic treatments that make this disease no worse than the flu. We of course just have to hope that this is not too far away.
From their site:
The easing of restrictive measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 has enabled the Wiesbaden State Theatre to resume performances with a reduced programme on Monday, 18 May 2020. As approved by the relevant health authorities, the substitute programme will run from 18 May to 6 June 2020, and boasts special performances from the now-cancelled 2020 International May Festival. This includes musical evenings with Günther Groissböck, Michael Volle, Gabriela Scherer, Andreas Schager, Klaus Florian Vogt, René Pape and others. Excerpts from the operas “Tristan und Isolde”, “Carmen” and “Der Rosenkavalier” are on the programme, while fans of German spoken theatre can look forward to “Ismene, Schwester von” (Deutsches Theater Berlin), as well as the Wiesbaden State Theatre’s own Samuel Becket Trilogy, which will premiere on three consecutive evenings in the Großes Haus, beginning on 4 June. In addition, various small concert formats will be offered, as well as the ballet production “Startbahn 2020” in the Kleines Haus. Advance ticket sales begin on Friday, 15 May at 10:00.
James writes: “[We need] therapeutic treatments that make this disease no worse than the flu”
You do know that the flu kills about 1 person in 1000 who get it, don’t you.
No mention of any musicians? Will they all be 1.5 metres apart and have their nose and mouth covered? Or did the local health authority forget them?
Someone has to be the first but not yet if those are the rules of engagement. It appears the stress of the experience will outweigh the enjoyment, maybe by a wide margin. No thanks, I’ll wait for things to recover rather than risk someone sneezing or coughing ten minutes after start and the hall being immediately evacuated.
I’d pay to hear Rene Pape or Klaus Florian Vogt sing in a Gasthaus. Wiesbaden has another small venue, the Kurhaus, which was a little too small for Wilhelm Kempff when I saw him play there, as Clara Schumann and Liszt had done a little earlier.
Concert coughing, often unnecessary, will be further stigmatized. Age can no longer be an excuse.