Pittsburgh Opera to have live, in-person audiences for production
Pittsburgh Opera’s first production of its modified 2020-21 season, Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” opens Saturday for six performances in front of small, live, socially-distant audiences at its headquarters in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Opera has made a number of modifications in order to present the opera. They include:
*The audience will consist of no more than 52 people.
*The singers will all wear masks, even when they are singing.
*The production is being set during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, when masks were also worn.
*The program has been compressed into 90 minutes, with no intermission. This is to prevent patrons from milling about and interacting with each other during an intermission, or waiting in line for the bathroom.
*The orchestra has been reduced to 17 players, which will allow for proper distancing between musicians.
*The cast are all Pittsburgh Opera’s resident artists, who quarantined for 14 days upon arriving in Pittsburgh last month.
*All audience members will undergo health screenings upon arrival, and will be required to wear a mask at all times while in the building.
All six performances are sold out. A limited number of spaces are still available on a waiting list. Those interested in getting on the waiting list can register at pittsburghopera.org/waitinglist.
The performance on Friday, Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. will be livestreamed for free on the Pittsburgh Opera’s YouTube channel and its Facebook page. The performances will be sung in Italian with English supertitles projected both above the stage and on-screen during the livestream.