World’s theatres watch as Bolshoi ballet takes leap of faith
As Russia’s Covid cases hit one million, performers yearn to perform before live audiences once more
AS A Bolshoi soloist, Maria Vinogradova has danced some of the most famous roles in ballet to audiences of thousands. But for much of the past year she has rehearsed in her attic and performed in her kitchen, not knowing when she would be able to take the stage again.
At home during the pandemic, she shared a barre and a few square metres of linoleum in a makeshift rehearsal room with husband Ivan Vasiliev, himself the lead soloist at the St Petersburg Ballet. “The ceiling was so low I couldn’t even jump without hitting my head,” the 32-year-old said of their months away from the theatre.
“I was losing my form, of course,” she told The Sunday Telegraph before the long-awaited reopening of the Bolshoi, which this week will become one of the first major European theatres to come out of lockdown. But is it too soon?
Theatres worldwide will be watching to see if the Bolshoi is able to stage full-scale productions while keeping performers and audiences safe, against the backdrop of a crisis that has already cost thousands of arts jobs.
While the theatre’s management insist it is taking “maximum measures” against coronavirus, the early signs have not been promising.
The Bolshoi has reported two Covid-related incidents since the start of the pandemic. The first was in April, when dozens of staff tested positive ahead of a televised performance to an empty hall. And last month more than 50 people were sent home from rehearsals after one dancer was found to have the virus.
Meanwhile the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg restarted its productions at the start of August but was forced to halt its ballets after just three weeks following an outbreak among the cast.
The tentative reopenings come as daily infection rates tick up and Russian coronavirus cases top one million, the fourth highest total in the world. Russia has registered some 18,000 deaths, a lower fatality rate than other badly hit countries, which has led to suggestions it is underreporting figures.
“It’s very hard now to guarantee that everything will be wonderful, that we will overcome everything without any illness,” the Bolshoi’s director of dance Makhar Vaziev told The Sunday
Telegraph in a backstage interview.
He said the theatre was doing “everything that it is within our power to do” and suggested safety concerns should be balanced against the desire of artists and spectators that ballet return to the stage.
“It’s not just a profession, the art of ballet is a way of life, especially in Russia. For dancers it’s the meaning of their life. And when you take that away, of course it’s an awful feeling for performers.”
All staff were undergoing regular coronavirus tests, and anyone entering the building during rehearsals had to show a negative Covid certificate. When audience members arrive, they will have to wear masks and gloves, and an empty seat will be left between each spectator or pair of spectators.
But in the labyrinthine backstage, performers, staff and seamstresses mingle in corridors and lifts, with few wearing masks. The Bolshoi has more than 3,000 people on its payroll and relies heavily on state subsidies and sponsorship.
The theatre is opening today with the Verdi opera Don Carlos, before the premiere of four short new ballets from international choreographers. The full-length ballet Don Quixote will be staged next weekend in a gala performance for doctors, and the coming season will feature major works, including Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty.
Dr Julian Tang, a consultant virologist at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, said via telephone that there was “no perfect time” to open a theatre as “there will always be a pay-off between economy and safety”.
Theatres and museums are generally safer than pubs or restaurants because of their high ceilings, and the size of the 2,500-seat Bolshoi will work in its favour, Dr Tang said. Intervals are the time of greatest risk, as people remove their masks to talk and drink. The Bolshoi intends to keep its bar open during intermissions.
“I know a lot of dancers were really suffering. They wanted to get back to the theatre, to feel the audience, to feel the atmosphere,” said Bolshoi lead soloist Igor Tsvirko, who will dance opposite Ms Vinogradova when doors open again. “But I’m for safety first of all. The virus spreads easily. Now we have the chance to be in the theatre – but all of us understand that it could close at any moment.”