Puccini’s Crisantemi was played to an audience of 2,292 plants at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu

Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house reopened on Monday June 22nd and performed its first concert lockdown to a verdant audience – the UceLi Quartet appropriately played Giacomo Puccini’s I Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) for 2,292 plants, one for each seat in the theatre. The concert was also live-streamed for humans to watch – see the full concert here.

The simple, yet bewilderingly potent idea is the brainchild of Spanish conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia, stirred by a connection with nature, that burgeoned during the pandemic:

‘I watched what was going on with nature during all this time. I heard many more birds singing. And the plants in my garden and outside growing faster. And, without a doubt, I thought that maybe I could now relate in a much more intimate way with people and nature’

At the end of the eight-minute concert, the sound of leaves and branches blowing in the wind resonated throughout the opera house, emulating the sound of an applause.

The plants came from local nurseries and are to be donated along with a certificate from the artist to 2,292 health care professionals, specifically at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona.

The concert was organised and produced by Liceu and Eugenio Ampudia, together with the Max Estrella Gallery and curator Blanca De La Torre

The opera house stated, “[The Liceu] welcomes and leads a highly symbolic act that defends the value of art, music and nature as a letter of introduction to our return to activity,”. 

The artist is to produce a video-art piece and several large-format pictures – stay tuned at www.maxestrella.com