Tsiskaridze commented on high prices for tickets to theaters

Rector of the Agrippina Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet Nikolai Tsiskaridze has expressed his opinion on high ticket prices in state theaters.

"I know exactly how much the labor of a teacher costs, how much the labor of a cleaner, a cook, and so on and so forth. And when I see the prices of tickets to the main theaters of our country, I understand that there is a category of people who will never be able to afford to buy even one ticket, let alone buy two. Or, if a person has two children, to take two of them to the theater. It is simply physically impossible," he said at a press conference on November 22.

According to him, in the USSR, the difficulty of getting tickets was caused by queues, not prices. He recalled the times when a student could use his student pass to get a free ticket to a performance or just for 10-15 kopecks.

According to the artist, metal detectors and searches to enter the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters restricted access for people who had free passes. In this regard, he also pointed out the absence of children in the auditoriums and the unfairness of banning theater workers from attending a performance.

State theaters are maintained and exist at the expense of taxpayers, unlike commercial projects, Tsiskaridze noted.

He stressed that those who have the right to do so should do something to reduce prices to theaters.

"About 'The Nutcracker' I'm not talking about it at all! <...> When even I watch my own records and there shows the hall camera, I wonder: did so many people let in the theater? Now there is no such thing. Now half-empty spaces - for me it is very strange, because I know a little bit other theater life," - concluded Tsiskaridze.

Ballet for a tutu: to see "The Nutcracker" in Moscow costs from 800 to 85 thousand rubles.

"Izvestia" studied the ticket prices for New Year's performances and found a performance more expensive than in the Bolshoi Theater

Earlier, on October 3, the press service of the Bolshoi Theater reported that they began selling only registered tickets to avoid resale and fraud.

Before that, on September 16, ticket operator Kassir.ru told Izvestia that the average ticket price for entertainment increased by 23%. According to its data, in the category "Theaters" the cost of an average ticket increased by 6%, while the average check - by 15%.