The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow on Tuesday announced its decision to cancel its international tour for the 2021/22 season in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, while maintaining numerous international productions with foreign artists.
Read also: In Moscow, the director of the Bolshoi demands the closure of his theater due to the Covid
"
All tours planned for this season have been canceled until March 2022,
" said theater director Vladimir Ourine during the annual presentation of the new season, quoted by Interfax agency.
The boss of the Bolshoi troupe also wanted to explain the reasons for his decision: “
The first tours that we are planning after that, we do not yet know if they will take place or not because more and more voices are rising affirming that foreign countries will not really accept the vaccines that we have and will not accept us with this vaccine.
"
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For this current season, "
all the plans that we had, we carried them out
", declared Vladimir Ourine, conceding that the period had been difficult for the theater, financially and humanly.
At the height of the second wave, in November, 150 people working at the Bolshoi had fallen ill.
The Bolshoi continues in Moscow
Despite the cancellation of shows abroad, the Bolshoi will continue to mount several productions with foreign participation, such as
Handel's
L'Ariodante
, directed by the American David Alden and the Italian Gianluca Capuano or even
Wagner's
Lohengrin
in cooperation with the New York Met, produced by Canadian François Girard and directed by German-American Evan Rogister.
This season,
Richard Strauss's
Salomé
could be staged with the Met Theater in New York, just like the ballet
Orlando
choreographed by the German Christian Spuck of the Zurich ballet. But in Moscow, in the fall, during rehearsals in
Orlando
, Christian Spuck had contracted the Covid and spent two weeks in confinement.
“It's a weird feeling, when you arrive here from Europe, that there is so much freedom here, that you can do such a large production,”
said the choreographer before the premiere at the end of March.
After confinement in spring 2020, Russia decided not to reimpose new health restriction measures in order to preserve an already fragile cultural economy. The theaters had obtained permission to reopen from August, but some of them had decided to postpone their opening, so that the artists could prepare. The Bolshoi had not reopened until mid-September. Currently, the authorized gauge in the theater is 50%, accompanied by an obligation to wear a mask and little respect for social distancing.