Opera house performs first post-lockdown concert for an all-plant audience
Next week, Barcelona’s Liceu opera house will emerge from its lockdown-induced siesta by throwing a concert to a rather unusual audience. The attendees will not need masks or gloves, nor will they be required to follow physical distancing rules.
However, they might like to take along a nice comfy pot and some water to prevent their roots from drying out as a string quartet serenades them, fittingly, with Puccini’s Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums).
A total of 2,292 plants will occupy the venue’s seats and listen to the opera house’s first post-lockdown concert when it reopens next Monday. Non-vegetal music fans will also be able to enjoy the performance as it will be live-streamed.
According to the Liceu’s artistic director Víctor García de Gomar, the Concert for the Biocene, played the by Uceli quartet, is intended to help us ponder the current state of the human condition and how, in lockdown, we have become “an audience deprived of the possibility of being an audience”.
For Eugenio Ampudia, the conceptual artist behind the concert, the project will serve to reflect what has happened across Spain and around the world as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to retreat from shared public areas.
“At a time when an important part of humankind has shut itself up in enclosed spaces and been obliged to relinquish movement, nature has crept forward to occupy the spaces we have ceded,” said Ampudia.
After the concert, the plants will find themselves in a new home, with each one of them being donated to 2,292 health workers as thank you for their efforts over recent months.
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“the first rule of opera is the first rule in life:
‘working’ for free for our friend’s teenage sister
who had plans to go to see the beatles
at olympia arena
when they landed in detroit.
we were recruited by her
to spend our time creating
‘the world’s longest gum wrapper chain’
that she planned to present with her fan club
to the beatles at the concert.
she funded our gum and provided us each with a cigar box
and we sat in the yard for hours upon hours
just talking and laughing
and listening to music on her transistor radio
and creating the chain
until we’d get called home.
we never questioned the project
as were we caught up
in the whirlwind of her excitement
when the time came
she went to the show and presented the chain
later regaling us with the stories and craziness of the concert
and suddenly it was over
our summer of working for free had ended
and I looked forward to my own concerts ahead
wondering who I could recruit to make my paper chains.
—
The Beatles
“It was like hearing the future.”
–Tom Hanks
“They blew the walls down for everybody else.”
–Barack Obama
“We’ve never seen anything like this before, ever. Never. Not even for kings and queens.”
–Unnamed airport official
how to make a gum wrapper chain:
what you’ll need:
Gum Wrappers: You’ll need a ton of these. We made our dress using paper wrappers, but you can use foil too. The process is the same!
Patience: You’ll also need a lot of this.
1. Fold It in Half
Take a single wrapper and fold it longways, or hot-dog style. Do this three times. Try to fold the jagged edge inside because it can get in the way when making the chains.
2. Fold It Through the Middle
Fold the wrapper in half the other way, right through the middle. It should make a “V” shape. Next, fold the sides into the middle, making a little “v.” This little guy will be one link on your chain.
3.. Repeat
Before you proceed, you’ll have to repeat these steps to make another chain link. Once you have two, you’re ready to connect them!
4. Connect the Pieces
Just take the two ends of one and push it through the two holes in the other. This is why you’ll want your gum wrappers to be folded neatly—if the jagged ends stick out, it can get difficult to see what you’re doing or where to push the wrappers through and connect them. Keep it neat!
5. Keep Going
Keep on going forever and ever this same way. Eventually, you’ll have a long and fairly sturdy chain!
credits: ‘The Beatles’ Patrick Julian – Beyond Olympia Stadium, Pinterest, felt magnet
Michigan football team with no band invites band with no team to play at its games
The Forest Area Marching Band poses for a photo. The band’s school lost its football season this year due to a lack of players and a nearby school lost its band. Forest Area Marching Band traveled to Maple City – Glen Lake to bring music and the full gameday experience to the fans at its home game on Friday, Sept. 27.
—
Maple City – Glen Lake invited the marching band from Forest Area Schools to play at its home game, according to the AP. The band traveled about an hour to be there and played the National Anthem before kickoff and took the field at halftime – in the rain – for its “Out of this World” show. Forest Area’s football season was canceled when too few players came out for the team.
The school’s band members were thrilled to bring their music to a football crowd.Ashley Peckat, a senior, said she “absolutely flipped.” She said it’s important to “show people what we can do.”
Glen Lake athletic director Matthew Mattson proposed the idea to Forest Area band director Brandon Deike who told MLive that an athletic director calling a band director an hour away to play at a football game is “just bizarre” and “really cool.”
The band is welcome to return for future games, Mattson said. There’s nothing like having a band “rocking out with our fans,” he said. Deike said he and his 43 players hope to return if scheduling allows because Forest Area knows what it’s like not to have a band.
In 2011, the district’s music programs were cut. That year, Deike volunteered to teach band before school. In 2012, the high school band program was reinstated but it took years to restart choir and elementary music, he said. “We had eight kids in band,” Deike said. “We’ve rebuilt here; we know what they’re going through.”
—
“and as the players tried to take the field, the marching band refused to yield.”
– don mclean
—
credits: justine lofman, mlive.com – photo: tawni Deike, associated press, up north live
I didn't have my glasses on.... 
The Beatles
“It was like hearing the future.”
–Tom Hanks
“They blew the walls down for everybody else.”
–Barack Obama
“We’ve never seen anything like this before, ever. Never. Not even for kings and queens.”
–Unnamed airport official