I didn’t really know what to expect when I walked into the Mahaffey Theater to see the Florida Orchestra make its grand return on Halloween night. When tickets for this performance of Beethoven’s epic “Symphony No. 7” went on sale, the seating chart looked abnormally different from those of the past, as only 25% of the venue’s 2,031 seats were up for sale—exclusively in pairs. Masks were required, every other row was blocked off, and even ensemble sizes were scaled down and socially-distanced.
Following a 2 p.m. matinee featuring the same composition, audience members at the evening performance were given temperature checks at the door, and were actually prohibited from shuffling towards their seats until 7:30 p.m. “It feels so good to be back! How wonderful,” conductor Michael Francis called out in delight upon entering the stage around 8 p.m. Francis, 44, may as well have been one of the youngest people in the room (at 19 years old, I was easily the youngest). He kicked the show off by conducting the national anthem, featuring a crowd choir of in-tune boomers. After some banter regarding what was about to go down, maestro turned toward the musicians, masked up, and raised his hands.
The first piece of the night was young composer Jessie Montgomery’s abstract, mostly string-exclusive “Strum,” followed by 16 minutes of swings between solemnity and uplifting joy in Zoltan Kodaly’s Hungarian-infused “Dances Of Galanta.” TFO musicians had been out of the spotlight for 230 days, and to maintain the safety of all members, several small ensembles were put together, featuring about 20 musicians apiece. Even in the scaled-down environment, no one on that stage, including Maestro Francis, had lost any zest for music during quarantine.
Once Beethoven’s half-hour long epic came to a close, the ensemble took their bows as Francis pumped his fists in the air and mouthed, “We're back!”
The Halloween shows were only the beginning of the Florida Orchestra’s phase one series that’s unlike any schedule in its history. The remainder of these baby-step shows, which run through the end of the year, will be intermission-free, each running approximately an hour. Every show will take place at the Mahaffey—located at 400 1st St. S. in St. Petersburg, directly across from the Dalí’s mirrored facade—and masks will remain mandatory. Some upcoming themes include ragtime, Mozart, and holiday classics.
You can see the full schedule at floridaorchestra.org, and if you’re not ready to be part of any sort of crowd yet, you will be able to live stream these shows for free. Isolation does have its perks.
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