And in St. Petersburg it’s cheaper
Thus, prices at the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg range from 6 thousand to 30 thousand rubles per ticket for performances at the end of December. By the way, we can’t talk about using the “Pushkin Card”. The denomination of the card is only 5 thousand, and “complex payment” – the card plus your own funds – is not provided. For a minimum of 6,000 rubles you will get a ticket no closer than the 2nd row of the 3rd tier. You can’t get into the stalls for less than 20 thousand.
At the Mariinsky Theater (main stage) the cheapest tickets for a winter tale for a daytime show: from 5,000 to 14,000 rubles. There are still tickets available for New Year’s performances.
There is an opinion that, taking into account transport costs (round-trip tickets on the Sapsan), visiting the Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theater will cost less than a ticket to the Bolshoi Theater.
A visit to The Nutcracker at the Mariinsky Theater will cost less than a ticket to the Bolshoi Theater. Photo: Igor Russak / RIA Novosti
Meanwhile, as the Committee on Culture of St. Petersburg explained to RG, according to federal legislation, theaters independently set prices for services and tickets depending on demand, and as for the Mariinsky Theater, it is a theater of federal significance, the functions of the founder of which are performed by the Ministry of Culture of Russia. However, Valery Gergiev, artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, has already publicly referred to world experience, according to which there are first class, business class, economy class and other tickets. And that the theater is simply following the global trend. Meanwhile, the older generation remembers with nostalgia the times when tickets to the same Mariinsky Theater, then the Kirov Theater, were available to everyone, albeit with an overpayment to resellers or selling “with a load,” that is, when they had to purchase tickets to unpopular theaters at the same time.
In Perm, tickets sold out in the fall
There are practically no tickets for “The Nutcracker” in Perm. And this despite the fact that at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater prices for December performances start at 8,000 thousand rubles, and the most expensive ones – in the stalls – will cost 20,000. Despite this, Perm residents are buying up tickets as soon as they go on sale in the fall.
“The demand for the Perm Nutcracker is explained by the fact that this performance is staged in a unique production by Alexei Miroshnichenko,” explains Yulia Batalina, editor of the culture department of the Kompanion publishing house. – There is nothing like this anywhere else in Russia. Perm’s “The Nutcracker” is a ballet of exceptional beauty and very meaningful, it shows the story of a teenage girl growing up in Russia during the time of Tchaikovsky. In addition, “The Nutcracker” in Perm is shown only on New Year’s days; it is impossible to watch it throughout the year. This fuels the audience’s interest, and therefore tickets, although expensive, sell out instantly.
By the way, during the New Year holidays in Perm, another production of “The Nutcracker” is taking place on the stage of the Opera and Ballet Theater. This is also a unique performance staged by the Fouette children’s ballet school. There are more than a hundred artists on stage, with the youngest just over three years old. This children’s version of The Nutcracker is also in great demand. Tickets for it are selling out even faster than for Miroshnichenko’s production.
It is significant that on ordinary days tickets for performances at the Perm Opera House can be purchased much cheaper. For example, for the ballet “Yaroslavna” – from 3,000 to 7,000 rubles. Tickets for performances for children will cost from 200 to 3,500 rubles.
In Novosibirsk – 26 “Nutcrackers”
“The public is already accustomed to the fact that a trip to the theater on New Year’s holidays needs to be planned in advance,” says Alexander Savin, Deputy General Director for Public Relations of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater (NOVAT).
This year, the theater’s playbill, starting from December 17 and until the end of the New Year holidays, January 8, includes 26 performances of “The Nutcracker”. About 38 thousand tickets were sold. And all of them have already been almost sold, NOVAT clarified. The theater even had to stage additional performances so that everyone could attend the main New Year’s production. For example, the price of tickets for January 8 starts from 3.5 thousand rubles and reaches 8.5 thousand; the price range for performances in December is more significant – from 3 thousand to 12.5 thousand rubles. There are tickets for 20 thousand rubles – that’s how much a seat in a box costs. On December 30 and 31, ticket prices start from 5 thousand and go up to 35 thousand; these are tickets to boxes, where visitors are offered additional services.
It is significant that on New Year’s Eve more and more guests from neighboring cities and even Moscow come to the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. There are often cases when entire groups of Muscovites fly to Novosibirsk, where they watch the ballet “The Nutcracker”, and here it is exactly the same as in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow – according to the libretto by Yuri Grigorovich, and then go to Altai for several days. “It’s cheaper for us to fly to a performance in Novosibirsk than to try to buy tickets to the Bolshoi Theater,” said mother of three Natalya Zimina, who lives in the capital.
Muscovites can fly in whole groups to Novosibirsk to see the ballet “The Nutcracker”, exactly the same as in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, based on the libretto by Yuri Grigorovich. Photo: Alexander Kryazhev / RIA Novosti
Many people don’t understand the excitement and desire to go to see “The Nutcracker” on New Year’s Eve. Of course, there are traditions, but regulars suggest taking a broader look at the poster, which contains many other colorful performances – both opera and ballet. Among them are “Cinderella”, “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Giselle, or the Wilis”, “Corsair”, and the premiere of the fairy tale opera “The Twelve Months” is expected in December. The cost of tickets for them, as expected, is higher than usual. But there is always a choice. For example, the cost of tickets for “Cinderella” in December starts from 2.5 thousand, in February – from 500 rubles.
In Yekaterinburg, instead of “The Nutcracker” “Morozko”
Tickets for the pre-New Year’s screenings of “The Nutcracker” at the Yekaterinburg Ural Opera Ballet were sold out, every single one, more than a month ago. As an option, you can watch a wonderful fairy tale during the New Year holidays. On January 3 there are tickets for the evening performance; a ticket closer to the orchestra will cost 15 thousand. But on January 19th you can enjoy ballet performances from a dress circle box for a very reasonable 2.5 thousand rubles.
It’s also impossible to choose another performance with a New Year’s theme instead of “The Nutcracker” in Yekaterinburg in December; all tickets for the ballet “The Snow Queen”, the opera “Morozko” and the Christmas concert have been sold out. Tickets for January for these productions cost from 650 rubles to 10 thousand, but there are almost none left. It turns out that the price of tickets, of course, matters, but not so critically – people are willing to pay for the New Year’s mood, and the peak of demand occurs just before New Year’s.
Direct speech
“The art of theater cannot be made exclusively elitist”
“RG” asked some famous people what they think about the price tag for “The Nutcracker” that has jumped significantly.
Sergey Shub, general director of the theater-festival “Baltic House”:
– Prices should rise, but within reasonable limits. After all, theaters are only partially financed by the state; they have to earn money themselves. And prices are rising – literally for everything. And we need to increase the fees that we pay to invited directors and artists. All this is true. But there is no need to descend into speculation. You need to have a conscience – like Russian merchants. Despite the fact that they also buy tickets at extremely inflated prices. But, excuse me, a trip to the Mariinsky is becoming an unattainable dream for 90 percent of the population of St. Petersburg. We don’t allow this to happen in our theater. We increase prices for the New Year holidays by no more than 20-25 percent of the regular price.
Andrey Borisenko, cosmonaut, hero of Russia:
– I think that tickets for the same performance in the same theater should still be in different price categories. Even if it costs 30 thousand for the first row, there should also be affordable seats, for example, 3 thousand each. It seems to me, as a viewer, that this will be fair. Another thing is that, perhaps, resellers will hunt for cheap tickets and sell them significantly above their face value.
Dmitry Solonnikov, director of the Institute of Contemporary State Development:
– This price tag means: theaters are actually divided into elite and for everyone. These are not Soviet times, when theaters were for the masses. In addition, everything is becoming more expensive: food and utilities. Yes, it’s a shame that a working person often cannot afford to buy tickets to “The Nutcracker”; many people’s salaries are not comparable to the theater price tag. Those who don’t have much finances can buy tickets to a cheaper theater segment.
Irina Brondz, artistic director-director of the Karambol theater, St. Petersburg:
– We are a socially oriented theater, we value our audience. I believe that any child should have the right to join the arts and grow up in high-quality theatrical productions, so that everyone can later remember their childhood, in which there was a theatrical miracle, a fairy tale, and music. And there was a reason to think about yourself, your family and friends. It seems to me that theatrical art cannot be made exclusively elitist from the point of view of the financial component, namely the cost of tickets.
Source: rg.ru
