11,000 performances cancelled in Moscow
mainThe city’s head of culture has been taking an audit of Covid damage.
Alexander Kibovsky went on TV to say that in the 12 weeks of pandemic so far, 11,000 theatre and music performances had been called off in the city, preventing 5-6 million people from attending events.
Moscow has 82 theaters and 20 concert venues. They remain closed.
Those 82 theaters and 20 concert halls are only those that are run by the city of Moscow. There is significantly more theaters in Moscow
These figures explain why Russia is the powerhouse of classical music and many other areas of culture! The long list of world class Russian performers and creators don’t just appear out of thin air! As someone who spends probably half their time in Russia, I am constantly made aware of the extreme paucity of offerings of classical music in places like London when everyday in Moscow I am confronted with the mind-boggling choice concerts/recitals in the evening. It is entirely likely that in Moscow in one week there is more classical music than in London for the whole year!
It clearly illustrates how the community approach is a vastly superior system to profiteering in areas of human creativity. To my surprise, only today, in of all places , the BBC, I read confirmation of this point from an entirely unexpected source –
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One of the problems in the US and particularly in Silicon Valley, Mr Schmidt believes, is a historical blindness to the role of the government in supporting research.
“Everything you see in Silicon Valley to the first order came from initial federal science grants of one kind or another.”
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(Mr Schmidt was head of Google and is now head of high technology for the US military – ‘surprise – surprise!!)’
Through the military, the US aerospace and computer sectors are massively subsidized industries.
11,000 cancellations in 12 weeks? Nearly 1,000 a week. It’s hard to believe, even for Moscow and state-run events. It averages 131 events a day, which I suppose is possible.
On the other hand, the continuous performance by Vladimir Putin as The Great Dictator will never be cancelled, at least not for the duration of his lifetime.