Full house at Michigan Stadium last night and full house today at Ford Field for the Lions' season opener. Masks are required in indoor concourses at The Big House, but no restrictions or mask requirements at Ford Field. I think Michigan is on the cusp of a major Covid surge in the next few weeks, and these large gatherings are likely to be super-spreaders.
We started getting calls from Michigan Opera Theatre a couple of weeks ago. They always seem to call while we're preparing or having dinner, so we didn't answer the phone. We figured that we would eventually have to face the music - pun intended - and finally gave in to a call last week. Of course, they want us to subscribe to the 2021-22 dance and/or opera season, but we are not going to put ourselves in harm's way even though MOT requires proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test, and masks are required regardless of vaccination status. Specifically, the MOT representative said that they were trying to "drum up an audience" for the outdoor presentation of "Blue" at the Aretha Amphitheatre on the riverfront this weekend. It's understandable that these entertainment venues want to reopen, but it seems that the typical opera-going audience isn't quite ready to sit in a theatre with hundreds of other people: I know I'm not. That said, it would have been awesome to see "Rent" at the Fisher Theatre next month and Puccini's "La Boheme", upon which "Rent" is based, at the Detroit Opera House next April.
