Like “
high-level athletes who must restart a
rusty
machine
”, the musicians find their audience in Vienna after a long confinement which has severely tested their motivation and turned their practice of the profession upside down.
Read also: In Vienna, New Year's shows suffer from the second wave of Covid
In the golden lair of the Musikverein, a hall with exceptional acoustics where the legendary New Year's concert is played, Sophie Dervaux goes on rehearsals, to a score by Gustav Mahler. No question of missing her reunion with the public, whom she has not seen since a tour in Japan in November. After the recovery in the Austrian capital, direction Denmark then Norway, as in the world of yesterday. "
We did not expect it to last almost 200 days,
" tells AFP this 29-year-old French bassoonist, who joined the city's Philharmonic Orchestra six years ago, where she is employed for life. She admits to having lived "
very, very difficult phases
":
“I wondered why work, why do my scales since I don't have concerts
”.
After having "
left her instrument aside for quite a while
", the young woman finally "
succeeded in finding personal projects
" - recordings in particular - to find the desire and keep her level.
"Rediscover the sensations"
Daniel Froschauer, first violin, greets for his part "
the many online concerts that have kept him musically alive
", unlike the blanket of silence of the first wave of the pandemic, in spring 2020. All evoke the escape offered by these videos, whether they are cobbled together by the musicians themselves in artisanal conditions and broadcast on social networks, or the work of professional producers. “
It was a great option for us but it leaves a feeling of unfinished business,
” says Mr Froschauer, also president of the Wiener Philharmoniker. Nothing comparable indeed with a performance in front of spectators, underlines the Austrian virtuoso of 55 years, who returned with this "
joy
»Ten days ago at La Scala in Milan. “
Suddenly you're playing for someone and that makes all the difference.
"
In this temple of classical music, 15,000 concerts were scheduled per year before the pandemic. Laurent Delage, agent for lyrical artists, has already rushed to the reopening evening of the prestigious Vienna Opera (Staatsoper), before heading to the south of Austria to attend a performance of The
Barber of Seville
. The singers are starting from scratch, explains this Frenchman who has been living in Austria since 1993. “
They have to rediscover the sensations they had lost over the past year and relaunch themselves in the deep end of three-dimensional representations
.
In addition to
the muscles and nerves that relaxed
during confinement
,
some have lost their bearings, it is very destabilizing.
"
"Like patients who have just come out of a coma, no one knows the extent of the damage"
Michael Schade, opera tenor
“
I feel nervous like the first day of school, it's a palette of emotions,
” says opera tenor Michael Schade. On his way to his “
first concert of the year in front of an audience
”, he evokes the “
excitement
” of the recovery, but also his anxiety for the future of the cultural sector. "
Like patients who have just come out of a coma, no one knows the extent of the damage,
" said the 56-year-old interpreter, who predicts "
a lasting effect
" of the health crisis. In large institutions, such as the Vienna or Paris opera houses, “
you may be able to press the button
” and restart the machine, but what about the smaller structures?
Far from the golds of the Musikverein, Benjamin Prins, opera director who made his debut in Vienna, deplores "
a financial slaughter
". "
I lost 70% of my turnover (..) and if I still want, it is thanks to my savings,
" he says, also noting the devastating psychological impact of this sudden stop. “
I have three, four creations that have stuck in my head. I am in a state of saturation,
”he says. In the longer term, the artist fears that the pandemic will bring "
the final blow
" to "
pharaonic
" and "
cosmopolitan
" productions, the very essence of opera.
