Bolshoi Theatre, Central Russia, Russia

5Shibani Phukan 5:00 PM Jul 5, 2022

Experience of a lifetime.
This is a must-do for a Russia visit. Book well in advance. We caught the inaugural show of that particular play. The atmosphere is electric with a boisterous audience showering the cast with bouquets at the end of the show. The production quality exceeds anything I’ve ever seen. The performance - left me speechless. It truly is an experience of a lifetime.

4CAPerth 5:00 PM May 7, 2020

Extravagant sets but relatively expensive
We attended two performances here, both at the Historic Stage (Carmen and Don Carlo). Don Carlo was a bit strange as it was a monologue for long sections, probably explains why it was a lot cheaper. For both performances, we had Row 1 Amphitheatre seats, top price bracket, but even so my wife’s vision was impaired by taller patrons in the back rows of the Stalls, which are much closer than it appears on the seating plan. Admittedly she is short but I hadn’t expected that. The more central seats and Row 1 Dress Circle were all taken, despite getting on line seconds after sales went live. Once you buy on line, you still have to exchange the voucher for actual tickets, and for the more popular shows (eg Carmen) you must provide passport details on purchase and show the passport to get your tickets. Probably a good system as it limits dodgy resellers from buying up lots of tickets. One significant point of difference I noticed compared to other opera’s I have attended in Europe was that the performances seemed much longer (generally with two intermissions) (or maybe I was just tired after long days) and that the sets were much more detailed and elaborate. The lack of English sub-titles also made things a bit harder to understand but is not a major issue.