(Credit: Klaus Frahm)

UPDATE: The Deutsche Oper Berlin reached out to OperaWire, stating that it expects the final decision by the Senate of Berlin by April 1, 2021.

The Deutsche Oper Berlin has announced the cancellation of all performances.

“In accordance with the decision of the State of Berlin, the Deutsche Oper cancels all presentations and assumes that no performances can be offered until further notice,” said the opera house in an official statement on its website.

Berlin’s largest opera house has been a part of the Testing Pilot Project of the Senate of Berlin with the production of Zandonai’s “Francesca da Rimini” starring Sara Jakubiak and Jonathan Tetelman but that performance will be rescheduled due to the new lockdown in Germany. However, the uncertainty over the rapidly worsening epidemiological situation weighs heavily on the project.

The opera house has turned to streaming, with the production of Wagner’s “Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen” being streamed from April 1 until April 4, 2021.

Berlin’s opera houses have been shut down since early November 2020. The German federal government and Prime Ministers of German federal states have extended the lockdown in Germany by applying emergency brakes until at least April 18, 2021. The latest rift between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Ministers of few German federal states prompted Merkel to publicly voice her frustrations over the failure to stem the exponential spread of SARS-CoV-2 new variants.

The 7-day infection incidence in Germany currently stands at 132.3.