Just in: Bolshoi faces Covid closure
mainVladimir Urin says he cannot compley with new city regulation to cut audiences from 50 percent to 20.
Moscow has one of the world’s biggest Covid spikes.
The Bolshoi has sold almost all its tickets for November-December.
The general director of the Bolshoi Theater, Vladimir Urin, told RBC that, given the restrictions imposed by the Moscow authorities, “it would be more honest” to close his theater. Otherwise, the theater will face several serious problems.
“If the situation with the epidemic is such that such restrictions are required, then it would be more honest to close.”
This is awful reality and a wake-up call for all theatres when you read this. One can be as optimistic as you like, or crow from the sidelines as an armchair expert as to why those running the theatres don’t know what they are doing, or should do more, or virus deniers, but they are doing the job as best they can with the balancing act keeping people safe and providing work or keeping jobs safe – and with all the cultural differences there are with funding the arts around the world – Russia, America, Germany and Britain, to name some large signing ones that don’t only just cater for elite singers etc al but all those lower down like myself trying to earn a living. But then a whole chain of people involved and affected not just those seen on stage when a company can’t function on so few allowed in the audience or who are fearful. Just seen on television that only 80 allowed into Westminster Abbey today instead of the usual 2,000 for Armistice Day service, and no one pays to attend that.
I bet Urin is pissed.
Please stop posting on this site.