I had no real plans to visit the Ballet whilst in Moscow, however when Ali, a new person in my hostel room said he had a ticket to go yesterday evening, I thought why not go too!
So whilst walking back from the english bookshops, I need a paperback book for the train in case my eBook reader runs out of juice ( If you are wondering I bought ‘What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell‘ ), I found the Manon, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre and tried to book a ticket as close to Ali’s Row 16 Seat 1 as I could. I purchased Row 16 seat 5, it cost me 2500 Ruble (£30). When we arrived I sat in seat 2 to see what would happen. When a very nice Russian lady arrived to sit in seat 2 I moved and asked her if she was on her own, she said yes and offered to swap seats. Another example of kindness.
I knew the ballet was going to last 3 hours, I was not sure what I would make of it. One tip I was given by Dr. Tom was to research the synopsis so you know what is roughly going on. I did this and it really did make the experience so much more rewarding.
There were two 25 minute intervals which were needed because you have to concentrate to follow along. as you will see when reading the synopsis of this Mayerling the Ballet.
I felt like I was in my very own episode of “I’ve Never Seen Star Wars“, a program where guests do something they have never done before and rate it out of 10 afterwards. I would rate this experience an 8 out of 10, I am really glad I did it.
