Theatre, cinema, concerts alive in Madrid despite virus

With entertainment venues shuttered across much of Europe, Spain stands out as a cultural oasis where people still go to the theatre and cinema or watch concerts despite soaring infection rates.

“Having the chance to be here with you is a huge blessing and with all my heart I applaud the great efforts being made in this country to defend culture,” Mexican tenor Javier Camarena told Madrid’s Theatre Royal last week after going months without performing on stage.

In the audience were 1 200 people in suits, fur coats and masks, often the FFP2 type, after having their temperature taken as part of a meticulous safety protocol.

Following a months-long national lockdown at the start of the pandemic, Spain’s cultural venues reopened in the summer operating with strict capacity limitations, well-spaced seating policies and bars and cloakrooms closed. And since then they have never closed their doors, unlike in other countries such as France or Germany.

But it has meant a costly investment by the venues. The Theatre Royal, where Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia attended a performance in September, said it has spent €1 milion (about R18.2 million), part of which went on an ultraviolet light system for disinfecting the auditorium, dressing rooms and even the costumes.

And the performers themselves are not exempt from these new rituals: as well as respecting the safety distance and protective partitions, the musicians must undergo regular tests and wear masks, except for the players of wind instruments.

“We can and we must” put on these performances, Spain’s Culture Minister Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes said, who wants to show that culture “is a safe space”.

But the pandemic has forced some venues to temporarily shut, such as Barcelona’s feted Liceu operahouse, which closed its doors in November.

Under the combined pressure of nationwide curfews, public anxiety and economic pressures, many cultural venues are fighting for their survival.

According to Javier Olmedo, director of Noche en vivo association which represents 54 concert halls in the Madrid region, “80% have not opened since March”.

Many initiatives to bring people back to theatres and concert halls have popped up on social networks, insisting they have not been linked to any outbreaks.

Marta Rivera de la Cruz, deputy head of cultural affairs in Madrid’s regional government, acknowledged “concert halls and live music venues were facing the most difficult challenge”, saying they would need the vaccine to be widely adopted “to get back on their feet” and until then authorities were looking at rapid virus tests.