When Austrian bass Günther Groissböck, stepped onto the stage to perform at the State Theatre of Hesse on Monday he was greeted with an audience of fewer than 200 people. Normally able to house over 1,000 audience members, Groissböck confesses he was left thinking “Is it because we’re no good?”.
However, the divided audience offers no reflection of Groissböck’s musical prowess. Instead, the spread-out listeners indicate just what the future of the theatre might look like.
The very first performance was, according to The New York Times: “part of a hotly debated and potentially risky attempt to revive live performance as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic ebbs in Europe. Wiesbaden’s concert could serve as a model for other theaters — or as a warning, if anyone who attended gets sick.”
The performance, titled “My Spirit Thirsts for Action, My Lungs for Freedom,” in reference to Schiller, is in part a reflection on the frustration with the lockdown.
Groissböck reflected upon one of his more unusual performances. “At the beginning it felt almost like an art installation, an experiment,” he continued: “But from song to song, it very quickly became something very human.”
Those who attended the concert were asked to wear face masks, though were permitted to remove them once the concert commenced. Tickets were not assigned seats, and those who came from the same household could sit together. Addresses and phone numbers of attendees were noted so that, should someone fall ill, they could all be contacted.
The push to reopen can largely be attributed to Uwe Eric Laufenberg, former actor, and current provocateur. Laufenberg made headlines last month for accusing the German government of overreacting to the pandemic.
Laufenberg notes that: “It’s easier to close a theatre than to reopen one.”
He concludes: “If you want to tell the story of Romeo and Juliet, they aren’t going to be able to follow social distancing rules. I can’t imagine that. I don’t want to imagine it.”
