Mikhailovsky Theatre — Attraction in Palace District

On the30th December 2017 I was looking forward to visiting the theatre and watching the performance. Actually, I was going to visit one of my favourite theatres after a period of many years. I have seen many ballets here. So, now it was the ballet "Schelkunchik" with music by Chaikovsky and choreography by Nach Duato. For me Ballet "Schelkunchik" is a marvellous combination of a plot from the fairy-tale by Gofman, Chaikovsky's music and choreography. I have seen the ballet many times here and in other theatres and was never bored with it. However this time was different. I was dramatically disappointed. The main thing is that I did not feel the atmoshere of mystery and miracle I had been waiting for. It's due to the many things: the scenario, the decorations and the costumes. Second, the danceres did not impress at all.So, I would say the Christmas story was completely spoilt for me! It's known that breaks are an attribute of theatre life. Unluckily, having a coffeee or something at the cafe during the break was completely impossible because of the endless line. I believe, they could find a number of locations for selling coffee to guests so that they could enjoy the break. The only thing to praise and to enjoy - were the New Year trees. They were really...

I wish they actually had people inside the theatre to help make rude patrons behave, or even better, eject them. Evening ruined by a bunch in front of us who spent more time on their phones than watching the performance. Had to be forcibly reminded by us immediately behind that picture taking and recording wasn’t allowed (not to mention the distraction of those bright screens!). And it happened after both intervals as well. The scenery was gorgeous, as was the sheer spectacle. The theatre is historic and thus very interesting. But the ballet itself? wasn’t first class to my (untrained) eyes, or those of us who were reasonably up with ballet. Some minor mistakes, a lack of precision timing among the corps de ballet... enjoyable it was. Lovely experience partially ruined by inconsiderate oafs. Overall, I am not all sure it was great value...

The theatre itself is beautiful, and the staff was also very nice. On the other hand the ballet was very underwhelming, with many of the performers slipping and making mistakes. The highlight was the amazing swan and the jester, though it just felt like a high school ballet for everyone else. Another big lowlight was the sheer amount of disrespectful tourists in the front rows, taking pictures and being loud during the performance (the staff didn't do anything to stop this either). Overall pay more and skip this...