“As New York reawakens, the performing-arts world is desperate for clues to its future,” writes Justin Davidson in Monday’s (6/22) New York Magazine. “The city’s status as a cultural capital depends on a world-spanning arts machine that … pumps out performances night after night. The sudden halt, followed by protracted slumber, could leave a lot of wreckage… According to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s timetable, theaters and concert halls will be part of the fourth and last phase of reopening, but even the brand-name institutions wonder how easily they can pick up where they left off. ‘I’ve never dealt with such a fluid and changeable situation,’ says New York Philharmonic president Deborah Borda. ‘We don’t know whether our music director will be allowed back into the country, whether artists will be able to come from Europe or Asia, or whether there will be testing for the audience. What about testing orchestra members every single day? There are literally hundreds of questions.’ And no easy answers…. Carnegie Hall mapped out multiple scenarios … [but] canceled all concerts through the end of the year. So have Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic…. Survival depends on the one resource that artists have in abundance: invention and creativity.”
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