France recorded between January 18 and 21 a daily average of 431,742 cases of COVID-19. However, The Marriage of Figaro are performed at the Opéra Bastille, Evgeny Kissin performs in recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Michel Plasson conducts Thais by Massenet at the Opéra de Tours and Marie-Nicole Lemieux sings her first Carmen on stage in Toulouse. The public is present, without restrictions of tonnage, this one being capped at 2000 in room. So why do we feel so much like living on another planet?
“We must consider a principle accepted in France, which has not been accepted in other countries, including European ones. By following certain rules, people do not contaminate themselves in performance halls, ”analyzes Vincent Agrech, journalist at the magazine Tuning fork, where he notably covers live music. “During shows where seated people do not mingle, are not opposite each other, there is no contamination if everyone is up to date with their health pass and wears their mask at all times. »
Culture, economic sector
This observation is not an individual subjective point of view. “A lot of lobbying work by orchestras and opera houses” as well as a “clear political will from the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot,” generated “studies and counter-studies” to bring “President Macron to check whether this had a sanitary sense to slow down activity in one more economic sector, ”summarizes Mr. Agrech. “The conclusion shared by the public authorities, the health authorities and the professionals was that there were no risks insofar as the barrier gestures were respected. »
In France, everything has unshakably flowed from this analysis and this observation. “Under the conditions defined and after checks carried out on their ventilation, performance halls are places much less at risk than public transport, not to mention bars and restaurants, where the very principle is to face each other while we don’t necessarily know each other,” adds Mr. Agrech.
The economic justification is corroborated by Michel Mollard, concert producer who programmed the first recital in Paris by Bruce Liu – winner of the 2021 Chopin Competition – at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on January 14. “I started my career in the Treasury Department at the Ministry of Finance. We are in a very generous monetary policy, but there are limits to everything, he said. Leaving the rooms open also means considering an economic aspect. »
In terms of health, the public followed. “Everything has been working normally since September 2021, and even the fourth wave Delta and the fifth wave Omicron have not changed anything”, notes Vincent Agrech. “Personally, the concert hall is the place where I feel safest,” says the Duty Christian Merlin, music journalist from Figaro.
After a certain caution in September, the public massively filled the rooms in November and December. In Paris, however, there are two post-COVID phenomena, according to Michel Mollard: “part of the public, around 15%, has disappeared” (exodus to the provinces or teleworking away from the capital), and “the public really reserves the last moment “.
The Omicron change
Reported to the Quebec population (8.6 million against 67.8 million), the incidence of 431,742 cases would represent 54,763 cases per day on average in Quebec in the past week. As for hospital tension, at the end of the week, there were 28,457 hospitalizations, including 3,792 in intensive care in France; 3,351 and 265 in Quebec. Relative to our population, the French figures are equivalent to 3,608 and 480 respectively. The only notable and capital difference is that Quebec has 1,865 hospital beds per million inhabitants compared to 5,800 in France.
As hospitals seem to have the luxury of seeing it coming – “we have a tension on the hospital which is manageable”, said last Thursday Professor Bertrand Guidet, head of the intensive care unit at the Saint-Antoine Hospital in Paris to the television news of France 2 —, Omicron has changed nothing in the policy determined by Roselyne Bachelot, Public Health and President Macron.
Personally, the concert hall is the place where I feel the safest
Bruce Liu gave his concert on January 14 to general elation. With 1,600 tickets sold. “There was an audience happy to see a concert that was so full and joyful, lively and luminous,” explains Michel Mollard. “The Champs-Élysées theater has a show every evening, of all genres, the protocol is very precise, access to the backstage is closed, people wear masks, there is great respect,” he notes. he moreover.
But Omicron induces a new era, a total change: the uncertainty hovering over the shows. “It’s more complicated in logistics than in previous waves, because all it takes is one positive case to call everything into question,” says Christian Merlin. “Last week, at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, for the premiere of Birds de Braunfels, a replacement conductor was appointed the same day, and five musicians were replaced by people who had never played the work. In any case, we play, it is, I believe, the watchword! »
Medicine is now preventive, as noted by Gilles Lesur, music lover, gastroenterologist and chorister at the Orchester de Paris, who suffers from the fact that his passion, choral singing, has been the most sacrificed element of the pandemic. ” Belshazzar’s Feast of Walton, in March, with full orchestra and marching bands right and left, was transformed into Requiem of Duruflé. It has been said that Duruflé could be done if it is always necessary to sing with a mask and distanced from it. The idea is not to sacrifice a program once again. The new choir director has understood that we need to sing on a psychological level. »
The fact that concerts are precious commodities brings musical fruits. Michel Mollard, two days before Bruce Liu, organized a Messiah with the Gächinger Kantorei in Stuttgart. “It was five days before the concert that we said to ourselves: ‘We’re doing it.’ On January 12, in the midst of a rise in cases, with an orchestra, a choir, four soloists, a conductor, there was a high probability of having a positive case. But everything went well, until the unforgettable, indelible moment. “We listen to Messiah, and tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson begins with Comfort ye my People, the audience reads the surtitles, and we feel a tremor in the room. So it’s extremely special. The words take on an incredible resonance with an audience of a quality and fervor far superior to those that we can know in other times. »