Photo Credit: Bolshoi Theater official website

The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow has announced that it will cancel all foreign tours until at least March 2022.

“All tours that were planned for this season have been canceled. And as of today, we have canceled all tours until March 2022,” said the Director of Bolshoi Vladimir Urin in a statement. “Additionally, there is a great uncertainty over any tour after that period, as more and more voices are being heard that other countries will not accept the vaccination certificates from Russia,” added Urin.

The Director of the Bolshoi Theater added that the institution fulfilled all of its plans for the current season, despite ongoing COVID-19 pandemic worries. In addition to financial problems associated with the lost income, the pandemic has created difficulties for the theater related with workers who got sick with COVID-19. At the peak of the pandemic wave in November 2020, 150 people fell ill in Bolshoi.

The Bolshoi Theater came to focus in September 2020 after the large outbreak during a performance of Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” after which the principals were infected with COVID-19, including Ildar Abdrazakov and Anna Netrebko.