Corona and the Salzburg Festival

On the 20th of May, I blogged “Austria, the country that gave us Ischgl, source of corona contamination this winter, is now preparing a similar hotspot for the summer.“

And now, I have succumbed to the temptation and am also here. A couple of days ago, I went to the premiere of Cosi fan Tutte, conducted by Joanna Mallwitz and directed by Christof Loy. The splendid clean and clear lined sets made by my friend Johannes Leiacker were a special bonus. It was wonderful: wonderful to go to the opera again, after all the Corona shutdowns of cultural life, and a truly wonderful production. Splendid young singers, who not only sang beautifully but also acted convincingly. An all-round elating evening.

The Festival’s PR machinery has been trying to virally spread the news of how disciplined their hygiene and prevention of infection measures are. No intervals to lower mingling risks, certain “social distancing”, as one was sat in a chessboard pattern and only half of the seats were filled. But the fact is that you get 1000 people spreading those dreaded aerosols in the closed space of the opera house. More than that, once the performance started, people were permitted to take off their masks. I didn’t. Very many did. In fact, I wore an FFP2 mask, that supposedly also protects the wearer throughout the evening.

 

One of my friends sent me a link to an interview with the Festival’s president with a comment “charming lies”. Well, charm is a matter of personal taste. I do not trust messages, statements, interviews with salespeople and the Festival’s president is trying to sell her product. Tickets, in fact, are still to be had. This is unprecedented, like so much else in these Corona times. This saleswoman has an uphill struggle.

Was it wise to go? No. Is it responsible to stage events? No. The least they should have done would have been to make wearing of masks during the whole evening compulsory. Austria succumbed to the powerful Salzburg lobby – it should not have. I can but hope, both egoistically and generally that we will not pay with our health for this experience.

arte have recorded the performance of Cosi, which can be watched here. It will be available until 30 of October 2020. Definitely worthwhile.

Masks / Personal Freedom /

If I fear infection, because wearing of masks, as the regulations require, is not enforced on German trains, I should not travel by train, the service director on my train to Paris told me last week. Is that the right attitude?

 

Almost everything a state does infringes upon a citizen’s personal freedom: the state take our money in taxation, it forces us in certain situations to serve in an army, it prevents us from harming others and it even tries to prevent us from harming ourselves.

 

Some people consider mouth and nose masks an infringement of their personal freedom. True, these masks are not very convenient but why are feelings running so high? Violent demonstration against the “lie of the pandemic” have been reported in various countries. Recently, even in Germany, a country which has up to now managed Corona extremely well. There are, of course, always the “usual suspects”, those who feel that the state is too strong, or that their liberty, whatever that may be, is being trampled upon. And there are always those, who flee to wild conspiracy theories, in order to make sense of a world which is too much for them.

We are living in unusual times, most of us have not experienced such limitations before. For most of us these are not just unusual but unprecedented times. And here mainly local leaders are failing. The opposition to masks seems to be partly the result of a failure to communicate the right message, a message of respect for the fellow person, the love-thy-neighbour message. So, for example, chaos in Frankfurt is the personal failure of Peter Feldmann, the city’s mayor, who failed to communicate with the revelling crowds, who for weeks, systematically broke the regulations in his city. It is up to every local and communal leader to produce the atmosphere of thoughtfulness and consideration.

Just do it.  

Solidarity III - elastic

Is solidarity a natural trait or one which we have developed over generations, having found solidarity to be a profitable strategy? Without going into that question, the issue of solidarity has hit us in the Corona context on various levels. On the international level, with questions of full open and honest information exchange (did China or did it not etc.) and soon thereafter in the world-wide hunt for ventilators, masks and other hospital supplies. Once a vaccine will become available, the rush to be first in the delivery line is likely to be brutal.

On the personal level, the first weeks of Corona saw most people take the requests, instructions and regulations seriously. As people are getting used to living with Corona, self-discipline is weakening. It appears, that kindness shown through solidarity, requires the right dosage of fear. Too much fear produces a dog-eat-dog state, in which we steal supplies from each other. Too little fear makes us disregard the risks which others may be subject to. In the first few weeks, there was just the right amount of fear. This is now, for the time at least, over.