The Bolshoi head back to London this summer

Dates on their website are 29 July – 17 August 2013.

To that effect, an apt testimony by Mr. Crisp of the talented Olga Smirnova, who was Petersburg's great loss when she left the Vaganova to join the Bolshoi:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/f16dc240-06f4-11e2-92ef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz286z5RJcJ

Booking for the Friends of Covent Garden opens in about a month's time and general booking in early April.


Friends booking opens 12 March 2013

General booking opens 9 April 2013


So far no details about casting, so it may be a case of booking blind I'm afraid.

Just to repeat the info posted elsewhere, the only info re principal dancers due in London at present is that they are scheduled to be:
Maria Alexandrova, Maria Allash, Nina Kaptsova, Svetlana Lunkina, Anna Nikulina, Evgenia Obraztsova, Natalia Osipova, Ekaterina Shipulina, Anastasia Stashkevich, Olga Smirnova and Svetlana Zakharova.
Semyon Chudin, David Hallberg, Mikhail Lobukhin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Artem Ovcharenko, Ruslan Skvortsov, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Ivan Vasiliev and Alexander Volchkov.

Performance dates are:
Swan Lake: 29, 30, 31 July and 1, 10, 14, 15 August at 7.30pm; 10 August 2pm
La Bayadère: 2, 3, August at 7.30pm; 3 August at 2pm
The Sleeping Beauty: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 August at 7.30pm
Jewels: 12, 13 August at 7.30pm
The Flames of Paris: 16, 17 August at 7.30pm; 17 August at 2pm

(Programme updated and correct as of February 11)

I should get all the press releases, so whenever it arrives I will post it here. I suspect it’s unlikely to arrive before booking opens and that Cassandra is correct when she says people will be booking blind.

Jewels to replace the Bolshoi's triple in London

It has just been confirmed that the triple bill scheduled for August 12 and 13 will be replaced by "Jewels".

Ismene Brown speculates about whether the Bolshoi's ticket sales will be affected by the acid attack on Sergei Filin.

Arts Desk

As unreliable as ever Ms Brown has produced her 'quotes' from a website of Royal Ballet supporters. In reality the Bolshoi has its own set of fans that only turn out for Russian companies and of course the Bolshoi 'brand' is very popular with the general public that watches ballet only occasionally.

If ticket sales drop this year, I would blame the recession, not something that in the greater scale of things is actually a very minor news story.

In the Telegraph, Mark Monahan interviews Olga Smirnova as a preview of the Bolshoi's summer 2013 program in London.

Mark Monahan

Ismene Brown previews the Bolshoi's London season for the Arts Desk.

Arts Desk