In Madrid yesterday an audience protest broke an opera performance: the audience interrupted the performance of Verdi’s opera “Un ballo in maschera” (“A masked ball”) because of the alleged lack of Covid-19 distance rules.
Non-stop clapping
The performance started late because of the dissatisfaction of many opera house visitors due to the narrow distribution of space. But the minds did not calm down. Shortly after the performance began, protests and discontent continued.
Numerous spectators began to clap incessantly to show their displeasure. After the Verdi performance was interrupted, the performance was finally completely suspended.
The regulations in Madrid provide for a capacity of up to 75 percent in the culture houses, which in practice does not allow a safe distance between all spectators. According to an official statement, they still only occupied 51.5 percent of the available seats.
Dense occupation in the lower ranks
The cell phone videos of angry opera guests, however, show a very different distribution of space in social networks. While good seats had sufficient safety distances, the spectators in the upper tiers actually sat close together.
The capital Madrid is currently Spain’s coronavirus hotspot again. Today there were new lockdowns in numerous districts of the Spanish metropolis. Around 850,000 people are affected by the new curfews and restrictions on movement. These are mainly poorer districts in the south.
The residents are no longer allowed to leave the districts. Exceptions only apply to the way to work, to the doctor and to take children to school. Some of the now sealed-off districts in the south of the metropolis had recently reported more than 1,000 coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants – that’s about five times the national average.
