(Credit: Luuk Kramer)

The Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam has announced the postponement of “Le lacrime di Eros” and cancellation of Strauss’ “Salome” which were scheduled for January and February 2022.

“After thoroughly assessing the current Covid situation and analysing the various restrictions, the decision has been made to postpone the production of Le lacrime di Eros to a future season. Creators Raphaël Pichon and Romeo Castellucci and Dutch National Opera’s director Sophie de Lint have discussed this decision with a heavy heart but are convinced that such a special, beautiful and artistically challenging project needs different times to be created,” said the opera house in a statement.

The world premiere of “Le lacrime di Eros” was planned for Jan. 20, 2022.

“DNO has made another difficult decision together with our partner the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and their chief conductor Lahav Shani, which is to cancel Ivo van Hove’s Salome due to the many uncertainties around the current Covid restrictions. It doesn’t feel right to ask the artists to travel to Amsterdam at the very beginning of January to start rehearsing while we have no guarantee to perform in front of a live audience,” added the opera house. The revival of “Salome” was supposed to open on Jan. 29, 2022, and was set to last through Feb. 14, 2022.

The Netherlands is currently under lockdown until Jan. 14, 2022 and recently logged 13,332 new COVID-19 cases on Dec. 23, 2021.