When you plan for your itinerary for Saint Petersburg, don’t forget to plan for watching a ballet performance.
Cost: Minimum 400 rubbles ($7)
Duration: 3 Hours
It is well worth it! You can watch a ballet show everywhere, and maybe more professional and famous ones too but you will definitely remember watching one in Saint Petersburg. And I guess it is more possible that you will ever want to watch a ballet when you are in Russia.
I went to Mikhailovsky Theatre for The Sleeping Beauty. There are a few more theatres for concerts, operas and ballets. Choose what suits you.
However in my case, Mikhalovsky theatre has the cheapest performances, and there’s no different pricing between foreigners and Russian. And I could pay for my tickets directly on the official website without having to pay more to a third-party.
http://www.mikhailovsky.ru/en/buy_now/tickets/672738/
Seating Plan
I bought the cheapest ticket, which was 1000 rubbles ($18) with restricted view. My seat was in box 12 of Third Circle. (The price varies on the show)
It was indeed very restricted. At least 30% of the stage was blocked from my seat. I had to imagine the dancers by looking at the other side of the stage.
But my opinion is that… the whole experience was very unique.
The theatre was small (and antique…the seats were chairs). A lot smaller than I expected. The advantage is that the stage was very close to the audience. The orchestra was right below me. And for me it was fun to observe the musicians, especially their body language when they were not playing. I still managed to count the number of performers. There were around 50 dancers and 60 musicians in the orchestra. All were very professional!
If you have more money, maybe you can get the second cheapest seat. Definitely your view will improve to some level. But for me, I was quite satisfied with the music and how close I was from the dancers! Not seeing the full stage bothered me but it was okay.
Dress Code
My tip for you is about dress code.
The dress code for watching a ballet performance in Mikhalovsky Theatre is loose. I saw many tourists even in jeans. Some in sneakers as well! Though it was common to see collar shirts and dresses. The ushers there had a problem with my daily bagpack. It was a 20 liters bagpack and the usher lady did not allow me to take it.
I could not understand her Russia or broken English, and she was very serious. No one translated for me. There was no room for negotiation. And the performance was about to start in 5 minutes. There was no way I could rush to the cloakroom and come back to the third floor before the performance started.
I was upset that when I was on the ground floor, no one told me about the size of my bag. And I was more upset that many people had a bigger bag than mine, and the ushers said nothing to them! I felt my bag was discriminated.
But later, I decided to carry my bagpack in my hand instead of my shoulders, and she was okay with it. So, don’t freak out! If you have a bagpack with you, ask the staff downstairs if it needs to be stored at the cloakroom. If unfortunately you face a situation like mine, just carry it with your hand. And of course, if anyone who reads this post had a similar experience, please share!
So far my guess is the ushers only had an issue with bigger bagpacks but not bigger bags or smaller bagpacks.
Oh, and drinking water (even just plain water!) was not allowed in the gallery.
But overall, I had a good time watching the performance. And I don’t think you should miss it!
Traveling Mega
