Spanish theatre drops Bolshoi’s ballet show over Ukraine war

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Teatro Real, one of Europe’s major opera houses, said Friday it’s canceling a set of upcoming performances by Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet over the war the country is waging on Ukraine.

The management of the Madrid-based opera house said the ballet’s mid-May performances of Ludwig Minkus’ La Bayadere won’t go ahead “due to the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine, which is causing a serious global crisis and a painful humanitarian emergency.”

The Bolshoi Ballet, part of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, is funded by the Russian state.

In a statement, Teatro Real said that it regrets not hosting the upcoming performances of “the prestigious company.”

It also stated that Bolshoi Ballet Director Vladimir Urin was among a group of Russian artists who signed a petition against the war.

On Feb. 27, during the final performance at Teatro Real of Twilight of the Gods – the last opera in Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung series – artists on stage wrapped the corpse of the protagonist, Siegried, in the Ukrainian flag.

The action, as part of an opera that “places man in front of his own path to self-destruction,” was meant to be “a symbolic act of homage to the victims of the war,” Teatro Real said at the time.