Four musicians are performing at the live concert. Photo: courtesy of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

After closing for 110 days, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra finally performed in front of a live audience in its home theater in Shanghai on Friday. The long-awaited live performance was held on the same day that cinemas and theaters were allowed to reopen in the Chinese mainland.

Indoor venues including libraries, theaters, museums and cinemas were permitted to reopen so long as they adhere to measures meant to control visitor numbers, according to a report from China Central Television on Friday.

Twenty people stepped into the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra's theater in Shanghai - which can hold 400 - on Friday night to enjoy the orchestra's first live performance after the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak, Shanghai-based outlet The Paper reported. In keeping with the reduced nature of the event, the "orchestra" only consisted of four members.

Audience members had their temperatures taken at the reception desk, then registered their personal information and presented their QR health code. After they were cleared to attend, audience members were taken into the theater in three groups and seated apart from one another. Face masks were required throughout the performance, the report said.

Despite the many restrictions, the 20 seats were snapped up the second they went on sale. 

Twenty audiences are listening to the concert with face masks. Photo: courtesy of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

 "Through various channels, we've learned how eager fans are to attend a live concert," Zhou Ping, head of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra said, explaining why they decided to hold the live concert under such conditions. 

Zhou told Music Weekly that while the orchestra gave livestreaming performances during the epidemic in China, they couldn't match a live performance. 

"When audiences applauded before the performance, I almost burst into tears," he noted.

"I will deeply cherish this hard-won normality. Normal life is wonderful," Zhou said.

"Livestreaming cannot replace live concerts," Fan Zhihui, a music industry analyst based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

"Live concerts can give audiences an all-around experience, which is not limited to visual and auditory enjoyment, but also stimulates their hearts."

This is why resuming normality has Chinese art lovers so excited, Fan said.

Zheng Rong, a fan of Chinese symphonies, told The Paper that he watched livestreaming concerts during the lockdown, but the atmosphere at home could not live up to that of theaters. 

"It is easy to get immersed in the music when sitting in a theater. There is a spiritual connection," Zheng said.

In addition to music performances in theaters, art exhibitions in museums are also trying to return to life before the lockdown.

An employee at Beijing's UCCA Center for Contemporary Art told the Global Times that an exhibition titled Meditations in Emergency is scheduled for the end of May at the center's Beijing 798 Art Zone, while another exhibition has been open to the public in North China's Hebei Province since the end of April.

Meditations in Emergency explores artists' thoughts and reactions to the pandemic and other natural disasters.

The news about cinemas' reopening has driven Chinese netizens into frenzy. The hashtag "Cinemas are opening" had been viewed more than 910 million times on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo as of Sunday afternoon.