On July 22, a Spanish opera house will reopen with a rather unique concert where masks, gloves or social distancing will not be needed. A string quartet will serenade the audience with Puccini&rsquos Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums). It will be a fitting choice, because the 2,292 audience members in red velevet seats will comprise plants.
The performance will be livestreamed, so humans can enjoy it too.
Why plants, though Liceu&rsquos artistic director, Víctor García de Gomar, says that the 'Concert for the Biocene' is aimed at getting humans to think about the current state of our world where "we have become an audience deprived of the possibility of being an audience&rdquo. As the quartet plays, &ldquohumans will become the spectators of their own social chronicle&rdquo.
Conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia said that the idea should make people think about what happened in Spain and around the world due to the pandemic. &ldquoAt a time when an important part of humankind has shut itself up in enclosed spaces and been obliged to relinquish movement, nature has crept forward to occupy the spaces we have ceded. And it has done so at its own rhythm, according to its patient biological cycle. Can we broaden our empathy and bring it to bear on other species Let&rsquos start by using art and music and inviting nature into a great concert hall.&rdquo
After the concert, the plants will be donated to 2,292 health workers as a token of thanks for their work during the pandemic.