Incredible arrogance: The Bolshoi Theater got into a new scandal with ticket prices

The Bolshoi Theater (GABT — the State Academic Bolshoi Theater) has sharply increased ticket prices in the new season. In the theater's telegram channel, viewers' questions on this topic are ignored, some are deleted. And this does not apply to tickets for the scarce, considered a children's and New Year's ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky "The Nutcracker", tickets for all performances, including touring performances, have risen incredibly in price.

"Six months ago, performances could be visited for less than 15 thousand rubles. Now the prices for ballet are 30, 40, and already 50 thousand rubles in the stalls. For tiers and places with limited visibility, prices range from 6 to 35 (!) thousand rubles. The theater is a State-funded cultural institution. The bar has been raised so high that often the quality has ceased to match the price," one of the spectators said in an appeal to the leadership of the main theater of the country in the telegram channel.

Also, an avid theater-goer pointed out that for Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor", which is a touring performance of the Mariinsky Theater, in the sales schedule the ticket price was 15 thousand rubles, now the price tag has risen to 30 thousand rubles.

"There is officially no dynamic pricing in the theater, which means this is absolutely unacceptable. This is incredible arrogance," he continues to be indignant.

The author of the appeal is sure that buying tickets at such prices means supporting the greedy policy of the new theater management directed against the spectators devoted to the theater. He said goodbye, thanking the Big One for the wonderful performances of the 248th season.

Subscribers of the theater channel call the new prices "inadequate and unaffordable for the majority."

"Such a hellish increase in ticket prices began with the arrival of Valery Gergiev as director of the Bolshoi Theater. I would like to note that at the Mariinsky Theatre, where Valery Abisalovich is also the director, there are no such prices in sight," theater blogger Natalia Beizerova told Moskovsky Komsomolets.

She considered the new pricing policy of the theater "a spit in the face of regular spectators."

"This spit in the face is so painful, insulting and unfair. I am sorry that our entire audience family got into this terrible situation, I am sorry for the artists who will now perform not in front of those who sincerely love them, but in front of those who came just for the sake of a photo with a chandelier," concluded Beizerova.

As EADaily reported, this is the second jump in ticket prices in Bolshoy since the beginning of this year. In February, there has already been a significant rise in price. The increase in prices for the cheapest seats amounted to 150%, repertory performances became more expensive than the mega-popular Nutcracker, and morning and afternoon performances equaled the price of evening performances. At the same time, on average in the country and in the capital's theaters, tickets went up by only 4%, the Izvestia newspaper pointed out.

Then the source of the publication in the theater explained that the Bolshoi reacts to speculators with such inhumane methods against the audience.

"They sell The Nutcracker for 300 thousand, and there are buyers. So why should the Big One walk past the money? If the solvency of the spectator of the main theater of the country is such that he is easily ready to pay hundreds of thousands for the ballet, then the theater should lure this spectator to its side," the interlocutor of the newspaper noted.