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Vienna has its first crown group in the cultural sector: 46 infections are related to an evening at the Theater an der Gumpendorfer Straße (TAG). The Vienna State Opera was also caught in this suction and reported seven cases on Tuesday.
But first things first: On Sunday, September 6, the TAG held a performance for the first time since closing. The organizer was not the house itself, but the Classical Operetta course of the Vienna City University of Music and Art (MUK): the students performed the evergreen “The Merry Widow” by Lehár. But the bitter thing about it: One or two contributors were Corona-positive. Interestingly, the MUK was only informed about this immediately after the premiere, according to the press office, that is, at 10.30 pm on the same night. In the following hours, the direct contact persons were informed, after which all additional activities of the students in question were interrupted until the beginning of the conferences.
Informed too late
The spread could not be stopped and then hit the Vienna State Opera. Among the 61 visitors to the “Merry Widow” was a member of the newly founded opera studio of neo-state opera director Bogdan Ro ?? čić. How did this artist get infected? There are two explanations for this. You give the ball to the organizers: a dance scene would have taken place directly in the audience, is the accusation. Not true, says the MUK: The dancers only walked around the room once, and only for a few seconds and with the proper distance. Also, all the visitors wore masks. In this context, an in situ infection is hardly conceivable. But it could have taken place before that. The entire audience consisted of “family and friends” of the artists, says the MUK press spokesperson.
In any case, the State Opera singer was isolated and soon tested positive for the corona virus. However, the measures came too late to prevent it from spreading to the Ring house. Before the woman could be informed, she participated in an ensemble rehearsal and thus infected other artists. On Tuesday lunchtime, the State Opera counted seven corona cases, as requested by “Wiener Zeitung”. The management is fighting as much as possible against expansion. The house “immediately isolated all direct and indirect contacts of the person concerned and subjects him to daily tests.” The measures already made it necessary to change the lineup on Monday night: Evelino Pidò intervened as director of “Elisir d ?? amore”, Javier Camarena assumed the role of Nemorino.
TAG protests his innocence
The Theater an der Gumpendorfer Straße rejects all blame: “I dare say that all the infections occurred during rehearsals and not during the performance,” explains commercial director Ferdinand Urbach to APA. All TAG employees were evaluated both before and after the “Happy Widow.” The result: only one lighting technician who participated in the operetta rehearsals was infected. The strict house rules stipulate, among other things, a contact diary for employees, tests, a distribution of the audience in the “hard checkerboard pattern”, as well as a permanent mask requirement for visitors. Urbach emphasizes that he is responsible for observing the rules in the auditorium, but not for the operations of the stage during a rented event.
By the way, on Tuesday evening TAG once again held its own event for the first time: a concert by Austrian singer-songwriter Bernhard Eder under the hopeful title “Reset”.
