Teatro Colón Lowers Curtain for Current Global Health Crisis

Teatro Colón lowers its curtain for only the second time in its century of existence, reports The Buenos Aires Times.

Although quarantine has been in place in Argentina since March 20, the theater shutdown a week prior, right before dress rehearsals were to take place for the Verdi opera "Nabucco."

The theater's director, María Victoria Alcaraz, has concerns that it will "not be the same."

The closure has also brought with it financial troubles due to the reimbursement of season ticket subscriptions which the public had acquired up to a year ahead.

However when the theater sent out letters to the public asking them to consider donating their tickets, 30 percent agreed to do so.

As the performers, both on stage and in the orchestra, consider what it will take for theaters to open back up again, the only resort is virtual spectators. Around 200,000 of these watched the retransmission of the ballet Swan Lake and almost 100,000 tuned in for the opera La Bohème.

But all that is still far from satisfying the dreams of 12-year-old Violeta, a third-year pupil in the Colón ballet school (sadly also closed).

"Without the final bow and applause, the magic is over," she sums up.