Rows brimmed with a diversity of 2,292 potted plants as musicians took the stage at Spain's ornate Gran Teatre del Liceu on Monday.
A string quartet performed the operatic piece "Crisantemi" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini as cameras panned through the rapt, herbaceous audience. (After a recording asks the verdant attendees to "kindly switch off your mobile phones," human performers come on stage at 1:20.)
The Liceu had been closed since mid-March, when Spain locked down the nation to curb the spread of the new coronavirus — a pathogen that's substantially more deadly than the flu and can severely sicken young people, too. A vaccine likely won't be available until, at best, sometime in 2021.
In stark contrast to the United States, the E.U. has significantly reduced coronavirus infections and European countries are now gradually opening up. Spaniards must still social distance and often wear masks in public places (masking is critical to reduce the spread of the coronavirus).
For the Liceu's first show since the nation's reopening, the theater said in a statement that 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."
At the conclusion of the performance, a recording of an applause filled the historic theater.
