(Credit: La Monnaie official website)

Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège has announced that its seating capacity has been limited to 200 spectators due to ongoing COVID-19 circumstances.

“Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège has learned with amazement and disbelief of the decisions of the Cultural Committee that set the limitation of seating capacity to 200 people, which will be applicable from Monday December 6. The Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège has scrupulously set up the measures required to ensure the safety of its audience, artists, guests and staff since the beginning of the pandemic. Therefore, today’s decisions, taken despite many studies carried out in Europe in recent months which show that performance venues are not places of transmission of the virus, are extremely damaging for us,” said the opera house in an official press release.

Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège has confirmed that it will comply with the decision, which will initially affect performances of Rossini’s “Otello Ossia Il Moro di Venezia.” For each performance, the first 200 ticket holders who confirm their attendance will be able to attend. Other ticket holders will be reimbursed.

La Monnaie has announced that it is still investigating the consequences for the performances affected by the new measures of Belgian authorities.

Belgium is undergoing a new COVID-19 wave driven by the Delta variant. The country has also logged one case of a new SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.