The lights come on, the curtain rises and a string quartet begins to play. But the return to normality is only apparent at the Grand Liceu Theater in Barcelona, where the seats are occupied ... by 2,292 plants. After months of silence, the iconic theater resumed its activity on Monday with a metaphor of the months of confinement during which nature took back its rights. Ficus, palm trees: 2,292 plants occupied the parterre, the amphitheater and the three floors of balconies of the emblematic Barcelona room, the green contrasting with the red of the armchairs and the gold of the columns.
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On stage, a string quartet interpreted the Chrysanthemums of the Italian Giacomo Puccini with as much professionalism as in front of a normal audience. Designed by the artist Eugenio Ampudia, this show aimed to invite human beings to think about " sustainability " and their " relationships with nature ". The idea came to him during the confinement by listening to the song of the birds, louder than ever, and by seeing the plants near his house growing more vigorously. “ I said to myself: why not enter Liceu like weeds, colonize it, and nature begins to grow everywhere in order to transform it into something alive, even when there is no one?"Said Mr. Ampudia at a press conference.
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It is " a visual poem that, at the same time, is a subtle metaphor that makes us smile, " described the artistic director of Liceu, Víctor García de Gomar. The concert was broadcast live on the theater's website so that those interested could broadcast it to their plants at home. " It is a concert like the others and we respect the public as during all the events carried out at Liceu, " said Eugenio Ampudia. " I think that all these plants, inside themselves, in their cells, in their photosynthesis, will now integrate the fact that they participated in this concert, " he added. After the concert, all the plants will be donated to health professionals who have fought in recent months against the new coronavirus which has killed more than 28,300 people in Spain.