On Monday, Barcelona’s historic Liceu Opera reopened for its first concert since mid-march. It goes without saying, tickets were sold out in the blink of an eye and they had a full house. But this time, the opera house was jam-packed with plants as their audience.
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Yup, you heard that right folks, in a measure to maintain social distancing, 2,292 seats of the Gran Teatre Liceu were occupied by full-grown plants for a performance by UceLi Quartet string quartet playing Puccini’s ‘Crisantemi’.
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The event was the brainchild of conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia and even though the hall was flooded with a bunch of leafy audience, the performance was available for human listeners via live stream.
The famed opera house in a statement said that their initiative was a form of symbolic art. It further mentioned:
It welcomes and leads a highly symbolic act that defends the value of art, music and nature as a letter of introduction to our return to activity.
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The plants reportedly came from local nurseries and will be donated to 2,292 health care professionals at the frontline as a tribute to thank them for their selfless service.
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Even though Spain has relaxed its restrictions and reopened various cultural venues, the number of spectators or visitors allowed at such places are limited to ensure social distancing.
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These brilliant performers playing in front of a leafy audience to get the feel of a jam-packed hall, while the viewers live stream the program might just be a visual representation of what the new normal concerts will look like.
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Can you imagine the amount of oxygen that was produced by 2,292 plants stationed in a single room? I’m so sure my lungs couldn’t take this form of purity.
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