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.
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’.
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
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.
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
Top picks for you
