Day #38: The Russian ballet

---

Today I made my first-ever trip to see the Russian ballet, at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. The ballet, "юнона и авось" - I guess it would translate as something like "Unona and Avoss" - is extremely popular in Russia, on a par with Swan Lake, although I had never heard of it. I knew a little of the story beforehand thanks to my Russian family: a Russian man travels to Mexico, meets a Mexican woman, they fall madly in love, he has to leave, they promise to wait for one another, but he is killed, and she tragically waits forever. Apparently it is based on a true story.

Knowing this did not make it much easier for me to follow the action, particularly as it is as much an opera as a ballet, and much of the exposition is sung (partly in Russian, partly in Spanish). The production was full of dramatic lighting and crashing music, and reminded me of Phantom of the Opera. I am not much of a fan of classical ballet at the best of times, and this didn't really win me over, though it was very professionally performed.

It is very cheap to go to ballet and opera in Novosibirsk - tickets start from about $4. Novosibirsk's theatre is huge and was only around 2/3 full for this show, and there isn't a lot of fanfare around it - it seems like the equivalent of a trip to the cinema for the locals. The theatre has an interesting history - building on it started just before WW2 and continued throughout the war, and they say it was finished on Victory Day.

---