Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house sells out all the time, but not typically to a room full of plants. The professional players serenaded the opera house filled with all sorts of greenery. The idea comes from conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia and marks the lift of Spain's coronavirus lockdown. It was performed by the UceLi Quartet string quartet.
All in all, 2,292 plants were in attendance at the theater. Puccini's "Crisantemi" was the song of choice for the evening. Though the audience was entirely made up of plants, human viewers could partake in the "Concierto para el bioceno" on an online Livestream.
The opera house is honored to have taken part, saying 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."
The plants were all donated to the event by local nurseries. The opera house used them only for the performance, but will be donating each one to essential healthcare workers from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. So far, Spain has recorded 246,504 coronavirus cases and 28,324 deaths from the virus.
In a statement, the opera house lamented the strange and painful time people are living through, but asserted that events such as these" offer us a different perspective for our return to activity, a perspective that brings us closer to something as essential as our relationship with nature."