(Credit: Staatsoper Hamburg official website)

The Staatsoper Hamburg has announced a cancellation of “Weihnachtsoratorium” due to a growing number of sick cases in the opera house.

The work was set to star soprano Marie-Sophie Pollak, alto Katja Pieweck, tenor Manuel Günther, and bass Benjamin Appl. Gianluca Capuano was set to conduct the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg and Chor der Hamburgischen Staatsoper. Eberhard Friedrich was the Chorus Master.

The cancellation at the Staatsoper Hamburg is the latest in a series of ongoing performance cancellations caused by the global propagation of the new and aggressive SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

The German federal government and Prime Ministers of German federal states have adopted new measures which came into effect on Dec. 28, 2021. Opera houses are allowed to stay open, and every federal state can bring the measures it deems epidemiologically appropriate.

The seven day incidence in Hamburg currently stands at 347.4.