Spain’s Teatro Real drops Bolshoi Ballet performance in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

SPAIN’S Teatro Real has cancelled performances by Russia’s famous Bolshoi Ballet in protest at the invasion of Ukraine.

The Opera House was due to stage La Bayadere in mid-May but cancelled the performances “due to the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine, which is causing a serious global crisis and a painful humanitarian emergency.”

Teatro Real authorities emphasised that Vladimir Urin, the director of the Bolshoi Ballet, was among a group of internationally reknowned Russian artists who had spoken out against the war but said it had ‘regrettably’ taken the decision to cancel the performances by Russia’s state funded ballet company.

The Teatro Real staged its own protest against Russia’s invasion during the final performance of Wagner’s  Twilight of the Gods on February 27.

In the final scene the corpse of Siegfried was wrapped in the Ukrainian flag in  ‘a symbolic act of homage to the victims of the war’.