In 2024, the Bolshoi Theater decided to sell part of the tickets for the Nutcracker ballet from the auction. The press and Telegram channels claim that similar practice is adopted in many leading theaters in the world, in particular in the Vienna opera. We decided to check the correctness of this statement.

The first about innovations in ticket sales for the most popular performance of the Bolshoi Theater was the Mash Telegram channel on November 23, 2024. “The auction system is one of the reasons why the sale of tickets is still not open to the“ Nutcracker ”. The final decision on the introduction of a trading system has not yet been made. The leadership relies on world practice: the same concept acts, for example, in the Vienna opera, ”the said in postwho at the time of writing this parsing gained 1.1 million views. Later, similar news with reference on the example of the Vienna opera appeared, for example, in the Telegram channel "Context"(269,000 views), as well as on sites"Gazeta.ru" Life, "Kommersant","Pravmir" The Epoch Times And "Riamo".

Ballet "Nutcracker"Appeared in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater in 1919. His first director was Alexander Gorsky. In 1939, Vasily Weinonen transferred his version of the Nutcracker to Moscow, which by that time had been going on at that time at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. S. M. Kirova (now - Mariinsky Theater). Finally, in 1966, the premiere of ballet took place in the production of Yuri Grigorovich - the very version that is going on in the theater to this day. This performance immediately became popular - his visit on New Year's Eve was especially prestigious. The New Year's Nutcracker has always been a “target” of the State Committee for Missiles Association: the hall was completely redeemed for groups of foreigners who came to Moscow to the Russian Winter festival. Those of the Intourists who did not get tickets wandered around the theater and offered any money for the possibility of fairy tales. To get to the performance, the Soviet person had to either have $ 200 (at that time the amount is unthinkable, and the matter here is not even in the amount, but in the payment currency), or blat of the highest level. All the reservation was shot from the New Year performance, except for the quotas of the Central Committee, the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Culture. Even the artists dancing the 31st, “cards” (the so-called free passes from artists) were not written out ”- He wrote "Kommersant".

In the second half of the 1990s, the system for selling tickets to the Bolshoi Theater, which consisted of symbiosis of official cash desks and speculators-buckets, that was still in Soviet times, began to collapse, and the repertoire experienced some crisis, so the tickets became more accessible. But quite quickly everything returned to its place: already in 2009, tickets to the stalls at the Nutcracker for ordinary December performances cost 6,000 rubles at the official tariff. (about € 141 at the then rate) and 12,000 rubles. for showing December 31 (€ 282). “However, how Claimed The press-this does not mean that the ticket for the 31st can be purchased freely: "written" 12,000 rubles, and "25,000 is" heard "-traditions are still unusually tenacious." By official data, the average salary in Moscow in 2009 was 31,700 rubles. per month.

When in 2011 the historical scene of the Bolshoi Theater opened after reconstruction, the situation with the dealers W wors on. It was then that the theater introduced sales of tickets for passport. However, this did not help: in lines at the cash desk for tickets for the Nutcracker, a crush happened almost annually, and sometimes even Fights. Most of the tickets still got resellersselling them at a price several times above the face value.

All this led to the fact that in 2024 the Bolshoi Theater announced a new ticket sales system for the December shows of the Nutcracker - they will no longer be sold at the box office, only online. “The minimum ticket in the“ full category ”will be 5,000 rubles. The cost of a ticket for the programs "Pushkin Map", "Places of a low price category", "60 plus" - 5000 rubles. The cost of a ticket under the program "Youth (14–22)" - 1250 rubles. Some tickets are available for purchase through a special auction ” - reported On the theater website. The starting price of a set of two tickets at this auction It is 100,000 rubles. The minimum bid step will be 5,000 rubles, the maximum is 50,000 rubles. At the same time, the website of the Bolshoi Theater does not say that the decision to organize the auction was made based on the experience of European colleagues.

On the stage of the Vienna opera, on an example of which they referred to the news of the introduction of this system, the Nutcracker is not going on now - there this ballet was last given in 2019. In 2024, the festive December performance is occupied by the ballet of Christopher Wildon "Winter fairy tale»Based on the play of the same name by Shakespeare. On December 31, the Vienna Opera traditionally give operetta "Bat". Prices for it, as well as all repertoire performances on the stage of the theater, Standard: from € 4.5 (for standing place) to € 295 (for a chair in the center of the first six rows of the stalls for the most popular performances). If parents go to the theater with a child, the full cost should be paid only for an adult ticket, children will cost € 15. In addition, for young people under 27 years old Some performances are offered special tickets for € 20. If your plans have changed, you can Solder tickets On a platform specially created by the theater - at the same price for which they were bought (minus a small commission).

The Vienna Opera is really carried out from time to time, but they are not related to the sale of tickets. For example, in 2021 The theater sold costumes from their collection, and the income from these trading went to the development of the youth programs of the theater. In honor of the annual Bala Viennese opera Charity art auctions are traditionally held: for example, in 2024 there was a auction exhibited A specially created work of contemporary artist Herbert Brandla.

The same can be said about other leading theaters of the opera and ballet of Europe, such as Parisian opera, Berlin State Ballet or La Scala - If there they conduct auctions, then they are charity in nature and usually do not concern the sale of tickets for setting from the current repertoire. Tickets for one or another performance can meet As lots at some auctions, but they are not carried out by theaters themselves, but by third -party organizations or individual philanthropists.

When it comes to ideas, the demand for which is several times higher than the proposal, the right to buy tickets is played in the lottery. Such a system adhere, for example, when selling tickets for the annual New Year's concert Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, for the performance "Harry Potter and Cursed Child"In the London Palace Theater, musical"Hamilton»In different cities, as well as to concerts of some musical groups. Sometimes tickets within the framework of such lotteries are sold at a fixed reduced price. And sometimes on sale there are tickets of different price categories, and then when registering, the user must indicate the preferred cost of the place. In such cases, tickets of different price categories are played separately so that it does not happen that someone won the option too expensive for himself and cannot redeem it. In any case, there are no bets here, and it is forbidden to submit several applications at the same time to increase your chances. Thanks to this approach, the chances of all who want to buy tickets are equalized.

Thus, the Vienna opera does not sell tickets for its performances at auction. The fact that the Bolshoi Theater, which changed the system for selling tickets for the Nutcracker, relied precisely on the experience of Austrian colleagues, wrote Mash for the first time, and other large media retold his publication. “Verified” failed to find examples of such a practice in other large European theaters of opera and ballet.

Photo on the cover: website Bolshoi Theater