Rota Fortunae, or the "Wheel of Fortune" is an ancient concept representing the unpredictable nature of fate. It illustrates the cyclical rise and fall of individuals' circumstances, including wealth, power, and success, as they ascend and descend on the wheel. The Roman philosopher Boethius (480-524 AD) popularized the idea of the Wheel of Fortune in his writings. Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy also referenced the Wheel of Fortune, contributing to its literary popularity during the medieval period.
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio is another medieval Italian masterpiece consisting of one hundred tales told by a group of three young men and seven women seeking refuge from the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) in a secluded villa near Florence (medieval social distancing, if you will). Each day a member tells a story; the ten stories over ten days touch on various themes such as love, fortune, and morality. The narratives traverse a spectrum of human experiences, from amorous adventures and clever stratagems to tales of tragic loss and unexpected reversals of fortune.
On day two, Pamfilio tells the fifth tale of Alatiel, the daughter of the Sultan of Babylon, who is renowned for her extraordinary beauty. Due to political circumstances and the fear of her beauty causing unrest, she is sent away on a ship. The ship is attacked by pirates, and Alatiel is taken captive and forced into a life of servitude. She goes through numerous misfortunes, being sold and resold as a slave, experiencing the harsh realities of life far removed from her royal upbringing. Eventually, after a series of events, she finds true love with the King of Algarve and becomes his queen. She is eventually reunited with her father, the Sultan, and her fortune changes once again as she returns to a life of royalty. Alatiel's journey from a princess to a captive to a queen illustrates the unpredictable nature of fate and how one's destiny can be profoundly altered by the twists and turns of life.
As of this writing the World Health Organization puts the global death rate from SARS COVID 19 at over 6.9 million people. Although the virus is still among us (as is the bubonic plague), the general consensus is that it's no longer a pandemic, and life can return to some form of normal. For the performing arts, what "normal" looks like is yet to be known. There is not enough data to understand the long term impact on the industry. Certain trends seem to be emerging, such as shortened seasons, changes in subscriber habits, and how patron expectations have changed.
After the tenth story on the tenth day, Boccaccio ends the Decameron rather abruptly:
By break of day they arose, and, the master of the household having sent away their carriages, returned, under the conduct of their discreet king, to Florence, when the three gentlemen left the seven ladies in New St. Mary's Church, where they first met, going from thence where it was most agreeable to themselves; and the ladies, when they thought fit, repaired to their several houses.*
The implication is that life simply returned to normal. The Decameron was completed in 1353; by that year the bubonic plague had begun to wane. It would be decades before the full effect of the estimated 75-200 million lives lost would be felt. Today we are seeing some of the same trends that occurred in Europe following the plague; labor shortages, inflation, changes in trade and commerce, rapid adoption of new technologies, government intervention, and even the redistribution of wealth, if only on a smaller scale.
Anecdotally I have observed that quite a few of my colleagues have either left the business or retired. This suggests that there may be opportunities for those in the industry that remain. But who knows. The only thing we know for certain is that uncertainty prevails, and the Wheel of Fortune will keep turning, turning, turning.
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*The Decameron of Baccaccio. London, Chatto & Windus, 1920, p. 555.