“Berlin’s Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer has declared all concert halls and opera houses shuttered at least until Easter (April 4), according to berlin.de,” writes Susan Elliott in Friday’s (1/15) Musical America (subscription required). “Word arrives just a few days after Konzerthaus Dortmund (Germany) announced the results of a study that indicated auditoria filled to 50 percent capacity were safe from aerosol spread—the implication being performances could safely go on, at least partly, as usual. After conferring with state and independent presenters on January 13, Lederer said Thursday, ‘Yesterday we were pretty much in agreement that no stage would open here in Berlin until Easter. You don’t need a lot of imagination,’ he added, referring to the increasing number of Covid-19 infections in Berlin. He also expressed concern about the ‘far more dramatic’ virus mutation that is currently spreading, indicating that issue would be addressed when the time came, or when Berlin was back at work. ‘But at the moment nobody can seriously give any serious information about when [we can] work again.’ ”
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