Spanish theatre drops Bolshoi’s ballet show over Ukraine war

View of the Teatro Real main auditorium, with the Royal Box, from the stage (Photo: Fss.fer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Teatro Real, one of Europe’s major opera houses, is canceling a set of upcoming performances by Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet over the war the country is waging on Ukraine. 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 Madrid-based opera house said Friday. The Bolshoi Ballet, part of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, is funded by the Russian state. Its director, Vladimir Urin, was among a group of Russian artists who signed a petition against the war, according to Teatro Real.