The Mariinsky Theater Orchestra performed Bach's St. John Passion at the Zaryadye Hall

On Sunday, 15 December soloists, the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus and Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev performed Johann Sebastian Bach's opera The Passion according to John at Moscow 's Zaryadye Hall.

The soloists included Marina Kiryushina, Maria Uvarova, Boris Stepanov, Alexei Krotov, Egor Semenkov, Alexander Nazemtsev and Alexander Bashkatov.

A similar production was performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on December 9. The orchestra was then conducted by Konstantin Rylov.

The opera was first performed exactly 300 years ago, when Bach was 39 years old and served as a cantor of the church of St. Thomas.

One Hundred Thousand and One: a musical about Scheherazade and Sultan staged in Moscow

Audiences have bought up tickets to all the shows through the spring

Earlier, December 14, it became known that the rate for paired tickets to the New Year's ballet "The Nutcracker" at the Bolshoi Theater for the show on December 31 at 19:30 exceeded the original cost five times and amounted to 500 thousand rubles (at an initial cost of 100 thousand rubles).

In late November, the press service of the Bolshoi Theater reported that due to the popularity of the ballet "Nutcracker" the process of selling tickets for its shows this year has changed. Thus, the sale through the box office was canceled and there was an opportunity to purchase some tickets at auction.