Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu finally reopened on Monday after months of inactivity due to COVID-19 — to an audience of approximately 2,292 house plants.
A string quartet performed Giacomo Puccini’s “Crisantemi” to the packed house, livestreaming the concert via the Liceu’s website.
The opera house — which opened in 1847 — teamed up with conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia for the event. The plants were brought in from local nurseries and were donated to healthcare professionals following the performance, mainly at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. The donated plants were accompanied by a certificate from Ampudia.
“After a strange, painful period, the creator, the Liceu’s artistic director and the curator Blanca de la Torre offer us a different perspective for our return to activity, a perspective that brings us closer to something as essential as our relationship with nature,” the opera house wrote on their website.
While the concert was an artistic statement, plant music — an obscure genre from the Seventies — has made somewhat of a comeback, beginning with the 2019 reissue of Mort Garson’s cult classic Plantasia. The genre, which was spurred from the 1973 book The Secret Life of Plants, argued that plants are sentient creatures who can benefit from listening to music. We can only hope this crew enjoyed their night at the opera.
