Cluster after “The Merry Widow” of the Vienna University of Music: 24 cases

The performance of “The Merry Widow” from the university course Classical Operetta of Music and Art of the Vienna Private City University (MUK) at the Gumpendorfer Straße (TAG) theater is making the Viennese opera scene laugh: up now 24 cases of corona have been confirmed. At the Vienna State Opera two line-up changes had to be made today.

“On September 6, the MUK Covid-19 working group was informed that one of those involved in the production of an operetta had tested positive for Corona,” MUK press spokesperson Bernhard Mayer described the process in a written statement. -Rohonczy. “All subsequent submissions were immediately stopped and the required information relayed to the responsible authorities. Contact persons were informed, quarantined and tested, as far as was known. There are currently 24 cases, all of which date back to this group”. All the activities of the affected courses have been suspended since the occurrence of the cases until the regular start of conferences on September 21. Furthermore, all public events at the university were canceled until the end of September ”.

Today, Monday afternoon, two changes had to be made at the State Opera as a result of this cluster: Evelino Pidò will conduct “Elisir d’amore” and Javier Camarena will play the role of Nemorino. Both changes were necessary as part of the follow-up of all contact persons for a member of the State Opera’s opera studio who tested positive, he said from home in the ring. This person had attended the performance at TAG on September 6 as a spectator, which was said to be attended by 61 people, and subsequently tested positive. “She has been in quarantine ever since. Even before authorities notified this person, however, this person participated in a joint trial, which has now led to more infections in the home,” said a statement from the State Opera. “The State Opera immediately isolated all direct and indirect contacts of the person concerned and subjected them to daily tests to prevent the infection from spreading to the house.”

The director of the State Opera, Bogdan Roscic, said in a statement to the APA that he was not present at the presentation at TAG: “But visitors report, among other things, dance scenes in the auditorium, that is, a mixture between the stage and the public area, which really should be unthinkable.If these reports are true, it is shocking irresponsibility. Even our colleague, who was only present as a member of the audience wearing a mask, was notified too late to isolate her immediately All our focus now is on spreading the word To prevent the State Opera and to see the health of our affected colleagues. “

“There is not a TAG theater cluster, but a music university rehearsal cluster,” argues Ferdinand Urbach, commercial director of the theater in Gumpendorfer Straße (TAG), after reports of 24 corona cases as a result of a performance by the “Happy Widow”. “at the TAG. This was a rented event, Urbach told the APA. The prevention concept of the house is strict.

“I daresay all the infections occurred during rehearsals and not during the performance,” Urbach said Monday night. September 6 was the first event at TAG since Corona’s closure in March, internal rules provide for tests and contact diaries for employees, personalized cards “in the checkerboard pattern”, exemption from buffet operation and Mandatory mask for visitors even during the presentation. they are therefore more or less a voluntary orange switch of the internal crown traffic light.

All TAG employees were tested both before the start of operations and now in the course of the identified group; the only positive case concerns a lighting technician who was directly involved in rehearsals for MUK’s production of “The Merry Widow,” Urbach said. He is responsible for compliance with the crown rules in the auditorium, but not for the stage processes in an external event. The alleged “dance scenes in the auditorium” criticized by the director of the State Opera Bogdan Roscic were only a performance of three dancers through the auditorium and not a scene in the audience.

At TAG, all performances had been canceled since the infections became known. The game will start again tomorrow Tuesday. The program includes a performance by singer-songwriter Bernhard Eder. Appropriate title of his concert: “Reset”.