(Credit: Opéra De Toulon official website)

Opéra De Toulon has announced the cancellation of its final opera for the 2020-21 season, Verdi‘s masterwork “La Traviata.”

The opera was set to run between May 28 and June 1 2021 for a total of three performances. The production was supposed to star Eugenia Dushina in the role of Violetta Valéry, Julien Behr as Alfredo Germont, and David Bižić as Giorgio Germont. The cast also included Marie Kalinine, Valentin Thill, Mathieu Toulouse, Olivier Déjean, and Albane Carrère. Jurjen Hempel was set to conduct the production by Renée Auphan and Yves Coudray.

French opera houses have been closed since late October 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis. France has entered a third nationwide lockdown in early April 2021 due to the worsening epidemiological situation. French President Emmanuel Macron has announced his wish to begin with the gradual relaxation of strict COVID-19 measures in mid-May 2021, but details of the plan are not yet known. French Prime Minister Jean Castex said that shops, certain cultural and sporting activities, and cafe terraces could reopen around mid-May, depending on the health situation.

France has logged 31,532 new daily COVID-19 cases on April 22, 2021.