You can watch a performance at the Bolshoi Theatre for less than one hundred roubles!
The Theatre declares its performances are available toevery citizen of Russia - 20% of our tickets are sold at 50 roubles. In addition to which, we have a Bolshoi-Students program whereby full-time university students may buy an entrance ticket to the Theatre at a cost of 20 roubles. 40 tickets per performance are put aside for students.
The Bolshoi Theatre was first featured on paper money in 1993 - on banknotes to the value of one hundred thousand roubles. In 1997, as a result of the denomination, the final three noughts were erased, though the design remained unchanged - and we received the one hundred rouble banknote in its present - to which we have become so accustomed - form: the Bolshoi Theatre building on the front of the note and the chariot of Apollo in close up on the back..
The bill's design gave rise to much controversy. Various ideas were put forward as to the image that should grace the new note: portraits of outstanding figures in Russian history and culture, ethnographic motifs, views of the Golden Ring towns - but for various reasons, all these suggestions were rejected.
The idea for issuing the From Moscow to the far corners of our land series (such is the name given to the series of banknotes which are now in circulation in our country) originated with merited artist of Russia, Igor Krylkov who, at the time, was chief artist of Gosznak. It was he who suggested that the Bolshoi Theatre should ‘represent' Moscow - "I reasoned as follows: the Bolshoi Theatre is a symbol of Moscow and Russia which radiates warmth and for which people feel a special affection ". The sketch for the one hundred rouble note he drew himself (as he did all the others) from photographs of the Bolshoi Theatre taken from the TASS photo-archive. And the engravings were done by Alexei Timofeyev - one of the best Goznak engravers. An amusing story attaches to the issue of the new one hundred rouble banknote. The bill featuring the Bolshoi Theatre unexpectedly acquired the reputation - within, of course, a narrow circle of particularly zealous ‘guardians' of the nation's morality - of being the most ‘sexy' in the entire history of money. It was the proud figure of Apollo, traveling at speed in his chariot drawn by four horses, on the Bolshoi Theatre portico, who was the target of their disapproval. No one, of course, casts aspersions on his manliness, though he was famous first and foremost as the protector of the muses (which is why he stands on the portico), rather than for any pretensions he might have had to the role of sex symbol!
The Bolshoi Theatre promotes Russia, while Russia promotes the Bolshoi Theatre. "Our decision to place the Bolshoi Theatre on the hundred rouble bill was not fortuitous. It is the most popular bill and it therefore should play a part in the promotion of our national dignity", says Igor who, in his time, came close to being a member of the Company. Igor's grandmother, worked as usher at the Bolshoi Theatre, for ten years. In the last year of the war, when the Company had just returned to Moscow from evacuation, Krylkov himself, then a young man, decided to audition for the Company's mime ensemble. But, at the last moment, awed by the high qualifications of his fellow-auditioners, he lost his nerve. The Bolshoi Theatre, however, was to enter his life at a later date.
