Bolshoi takes a leap to the east amid Russia sanctions

Much like the Russian government, the Bolshoi Theatre — home to two of the world’s greatest opera and ballet companies — is being shunned by the West because of the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine and looking east to China instead.

The Bolshoi’s director, Vladimir Urin, told a news conference in Moscow to announce its 2023/24 programme that he was saddened by the loss of what had been regular creative co-operation with Western theatre companies and artists.

“I’m deeply convinced ... that only culture and art can truly help nations to understand each other,” he said. “Even in the complicated and difficult kind of situation that we have in the world now.”

The Bolshoi ballet is already set to go to China in July, and Urin said detailed discussions were under way about the ballet and the opera going in 2024.

But he said the reasons weren’t financial, and that it was a myth that overseas tours brought in significant revenue.

“It's more a question of image, of sharing the things we know how to do ... it’s about creativity, more than anything.”

This season still has a premiere in store, of Verdi’s opera Luisa Miller, featuring 37-year-old Italian tenor Antonio Poli, who has no qualms about performing in Russia, even if it means flying via Turkey because of Western sanctions.

“Many, many Italian and international singers come here,” he said. “For my first time, I have to say it’s really a wonderful place to rehearse and to sing.”

The Bolshoi orchestra is due to collaborate with Moscow’s Maly Theatre for the first time this year for a production of Alexander Ostrovsky’s play The Snow Maiden, with incidental music by Tchaikovsky, to mark 150 years since it was first performed.

The ballet will also travel to the Belarusian capital Minsk in November, and to Oman in January.

Reuters