An Audience Comes Out of Lockdown for Schubert and Mahler - The New York Times

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Observing the social distancing, the German Theater cautiously restarted the live concert.

Wiesbaden, Germany-Usually, when a performer enters a dim theater staring at the bright stage lights and sees that every four seats are occupied, this is not a good sign.

"Is it because we are not good?" Austrian bassist Günther Groissböck recalled his thoughts when he walked to a sparse audience at the Hessen State Theater on Monday night. "Is it because we are not welcome?"

In the neo-baroque auditorium, there must be at least three empty seats for each occupied seat. The auditorium can usually accommodate 1,000 people, but it can accommodate less than 200 seats on Mondays. This is by design. This is a heated debate about resuming live performances after the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe ebbs, and it may be risky. The concert in Wiesbaden can serve as a role model for other theaters, as well as a warning if someone is sick.

In an interview after receiving Schubert and Mahler performances, he said that although Mr. Groissböck understood the reasons for social isolation of empty seats, he still felt strange.

He said: "At first it felt like a work of art, an experiment." "But from one song to another, it quickly becomes very human."

Concert participants must wear face masks in the theater, although they can remove them once they are seated. There is no seat allocation for tickets, and a family member can sit together. The theater records the name and address of everyone, so they can be contacted later in case anyone finds out that they are infected.

The driving force behind the incident is

, Is a senior actor directed by the Wiesbaden Theater. Not everyone is happy that he is actively restarting live performances. Last month, Mr. Laufenberg inspired

He claimed that the restrictions imposed by the government violated the German Constitution and said that the response to the pandemic had been exaggerated. Some commentators accused him of replying

Protest measures aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.

Mr. Laufenberg said in an interview that some theater employees have reservations about opening so soon. However, Monday’s performance was the first day in a row and lasted until the first week of June. This was part of the overall return to normal in Germany, where the increase in new cases in Germany has been well below 1%.

The country is leading the way in reviving the cultural sector. Shops, hairdressers and nail salons are also attracting customers again, and

Run on a short schedule. In Hessen, where Wiesbaden is the capital, restaurants and stadiums can be reopened as long as tourists pay attention to alienation.

Elsewhere in Europe, governments are also taking steps to bring music lovers back to concert halls. Austria announced last week that it will start a social event for up to 100 people on May 29. If the organizers of the event put forward a safety plan for government approval, a new limit of 1,000 people will be proposed in August. This led to the Salzburg Music Festival (one of the grandest summer traditions in Europe) announcing the desire to continue performing in some form.

In Italy, the government passed

As long as certain conditions are met, the concert can start on June 15th, and everyone including the participants-musicians and listeners-keep at least one meter or three feet away.

Mr. Laufenberg said that holding a concert under the premise of compliance with health guidelines involved negotiating with officials and reprogramming the theater’s ticketing software in less than three days. Erect obstacles so that the audience can enter the theater without being crowded. Signs have been erected to indicate the flow of people and explain measures to prevent infection. Place hand sanitizer in an important location.​​

Laufenberg said: "It is easier to close the theater than to reopen it."

During the intermission, wine, pretzels and other snacks are delivered from the food carts placed outdoors near the entrance to the theater, rather than in the hall as usual. Fortunately, the weather on Monday was sunny and warm.

"This is not the atmosphere we are used to," said Austrian architect Wolfgang Allin, who owns a house in Wiesbaden, shortly after he and his wife Angelika took their seats on the balcony. "But you must go with the flow."

The idea for Monday’s performance stemmed from discussions between Mr. Laufenberg and Mr. Groisbock, who had collaborated on the arrangement of Richard Wagner’s "Parsifal" at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany last year. "(This year's performance has been cancelled).

He said Mr. Grisbok was in his Swiss home, trying to avoid depression. He said of Mr. Laufenberg: "We get along very well and we have the same rebellious attitude towards these restrictions."

The singer chose the title of the concert, which is Schiller's line "My desire to act, my lungs seek freedom". He said this shows that he is frustrated with the blockade.

Mr. Groissböck and the pianist Alexandra Goloubitskaia who accompanied him received much lower fees than usual. He said: "At the moment, money is a top priority, and I'm glad that this is even happening."

Mr. Groissböck sang an excerpt for the re-enactment, extracting his role in Bayreuth without interference from the pandemic: Wagner's "The Dead Wotan's farewell at the end of "The Walking Dead" (Die Walküre). The audience was ecstatic and made up for the lack of numbers.

But Mr. Laufenberg said that such performances are not a permanent solution, both financially and artistically. He said: "If you want to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet, they will not be able to follow the rules of social distancing." "I can't imagine. I don't want to imagine."

Alex Marshall provided a report from London.