The homes of the Utah Symphony, Ballet West and Utah Opera are scheduled to reopen in March — four months after their most recent closure due to a statewide surge in COVID-19 cases.
Salt Lake County Arts & Culture announced Thursday that its four downtown Salt Lake City venues — Abravanel Hall, the Capitol Theatre, the Eccles Theater and the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center — will host public performances starting March 25.
The venues will follow modified health and safety guidelines, including social distancing and mandatory face coverings, county spokeswoman Cami Munk said in a statement.
“The health and safety of our performers, patrons, and staff are of the utmost importance to us,” Munk said. “Our phased reopening plans will support us getting back to presenting work to live audiences in a way that protects everyone.”
“We are thrilled to welcome listeners back” to the venues “to celebrate music and reconnect with our community live in a safe environment,” said Steven Brosvik, president and CEO of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, in a statement.
The Utah Symphony on Thursday announced six programs for its Masterworks series to be performed this spring:
March 25-27 • Mark Albrecht conducting works by Mahler and Richard Strauss.
April 8-10 • Domingo Hindoyan conducting works by Roberto Sierra and Bartok, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 — the “Jupiter” Symphony.
April 22-24 • Madeline Adkins, the symphony’s concertmaster, performs Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.”
April 29-May 1 • Thierry Fischer conducts works by Bach, Wynton Marsalis, Carter and Wagner.
May 20-22 • Beethoven’s First Symphony, and flutist Demarre McGill performs André Jolivet’s “Suite en concert.”
May 27-29 • Thierry Fischer conducts works by Jesse Montgomery, Mozart, Schoenberg and Copland.
Plans for a Utah Opera production in May are still to be announced.
Current symphony ticket holders must confirm their plans to attend by March 11. Single tickets will go on sale March 15 for the first two programs, and March 30 for the other shows.
Ballet West’s next scheduled production is “Bolero and The Dream,” a pair of works — one using Ravel’s “Bolero,” the other a retelling of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” It’s scheduled to run April 9-17 at the Capitol Theatre.
The next performer scheduled to play the Eccles Theater is comedian Bill Maher on April 24.
The venues were first closed a year ago, along with schools, colleges and most other large gathering places in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abravanel Hall reopened Sept. 17 for performances by the Utah Symphony, with limited seating and the orchestra in its first shows limited to strings and percussion — instruments that can be played while wearing masks.
The Capitol reopened Oct. 9, for a Utah Opera production of two one-act operas that featured casts of one or two singers. Ballet West followed at the Capitol in early November with “Nine Sinatra Songs,” a program where all the dancers wore masks — and the only couples dancing together were domestic partners in real life.
As cases of COVID-19 surged last fall, the county ordered the four venues closed beginning Nov. 23. The closure prompted the cancellation of several holiday events, including Utah Symphony’s sing-along “Messiah,” Ballet West’s production of “The Nutcracker,” and Utah musician Kurt Bestor’s annual Christmas concert at the Eccles.
Follow @SeanPMeans