Selling tickets for the ballet “The Nutcracker” at auction could lead to a loss of public understanding at the Bolshoi Theater (SABT). This opinion was expressed by theater critic and rector of the Russian Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS) Grigory Zaslavsky.
He hopes that the production will be accessible not only to wealthy viewers, but also to those who can appreciate its artistic component.
“The production must be accessible not only to the wealthiest viewers who are willing to play in the auction and win it, but also to those who have the ability to appreciate its artistic component. It is very important that the Bolshoi Theater does not lose an audience capable of distinguishing good from evil. Sometimes financial capabilities and those of experts diverge.” – TASS quotes the university rector.
Zaslavsky believes that the auction may include paintings, sculptures and objects of decorative and applied arts, but not tickets for theatrical performances.
“Maintaining the possibility of purchasing tickets for The Nutcracker with the Pushkin Card would personally reconcile me with this decision of the Bolshoi Theatre. Because the Bolshoi Theater is not a private shop, it is the state theater of Russia, which has a separate item in the budget of the Russian Federation, which corresponds to the position and status of the main theater of the country.” – he emphasized.
Furthermore, the Bolshoi’s existence with taxpayer money imposes substantive and organizational functions on the theater.
“No one has canceled the social function of the theater. It is very important that the Bolshoi and Maly theaters, as well as other imperial theaters, were visited not only by representatives of the royal family, but also by students. The fame of the great artists of the Small Theater, who periodically performed at the Bolshoi Theater, was based on success and authority, mainly among the student audience.” – the critic recalled.
Zaslavsky expressed the hope that “the secular character of the Nutcracker ballet will not destroy the artistic meaning of this New Year’s fairy tale.”
As reported EADailyEarlier the Bolshoi Theater, which had been languishing fans for an unusually long time in anticipation of the New Year’s poster “Nutcracker”, announced that tickets for this ballet would not be sold at the theater’s box office.
In total, 18 performances of the fairy tale ballet on the historic stage were announced in December; The poster for January’s “The Nutcracker” has not yet been revealed. The start of sales was announced on December 2; On that day, tickets for the December 17 performance will be sold online and then the same: the last day of sales is December 14 for the ballet on December 31.
“Some tickets will be available for purchase at auction.” – The Bolshoi was also happy.
None of the advertisements reveal the approximate prices of the tickets that will be sold both on the theater’s website and within the framework of the auction, but in the video with instructions for bidders you can see that the price of the lot, a set of two tickets for stalls – starts from 100 thousand rubles.
The auction was invented “due to the enormous popularity of the Nutcracker ballet.”
