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2013-14 season announcement


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I just bought my first batch of Bolshoi tickets and can provide a little more information. What's on sale right now are packages, including "ultimate Bolshoi experience." They went on sale for Friends today and for the general public on January 21. If you buy tickets for each of the three ballets, you get a 15% discount. But you have to buy the same number of tickets for each ballet. I.e., you can't buy tickets for 3 Swans, 2 Don Qs, and 1 Spartacus. For any extras beyond the package, you need to come back in late March and buy single tickets. Go to http://www.lincolncenterfestival.org/ and click the "special offers." You can join the Friends for as little as $100, so if you're buying these packages at 15% off, it almost pays for the Friends membership.

If you use the web site ordering, you can't pick out a particular seat and they don't have any charts on-line to show you which seats fall into which price category. You can get a Koch theater seating chart from the Koch site, though. I called the box office (212-721-6500) and that worked best. I had about a 5-minute wait, but it wasn't bad. They needed my Friends code (which you get by e-mail if you're a Friend) and the operator also checked their records to see my membership number (so "borrowing" someone else's code wouldn't work). The operator was able to tell me which seats were available and pricing from the range of places I normally like to sit. They are not using row A in Orchestra (unlike NYCB), and are starting instead in Row B. They do not mail out tickets or send them as e-mail attachments; you have to pick them up at the box offices at Fisher or Tully in person. I hope that helps!

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If it's any guide, the casting for the Kennedy Center Bolshoi engagement in late May was just announced, four months out. But the experience at Orange County/Segerstrom in early 2010 was sobering. For a week's worth of Don Q, the casting was shuffled continually right up through performance week -- injury, illness, who knows...Others have mentioned on this site that the Russian companies seem more cavalier than American companies about changing casting late in the game, but I don't know if that is accurate in general.

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I am disappointed Lunkina is not on the roster.

Regarding the package discount, we got different answers from different people. One said Bolshoi tickets must be bought in set of 3 or 4 (3 different ballets & an opera at 20% off), another told us once you had a set of 3 or 4 you could get any additional Bolshoi tickets with package discount. I went to the box office during lunch break to buy about 50 tickets for 8 of us and found the latter to be case, 2 of us also want the opera, so all of our tickets are 20% off. And you don't have to buy the same number of tickets for each ballet once you have a set of 4. So the package discount is liberally applied. And you can pick specific seats at the box office.

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I'm really distressed to see that Mussel was allowed to buy lots of extra tickets once they had the 3/4 package. I specifically asked about that and was put on hold so the operator could check. When she came back on, I was told no. I repeated my understanding of this, that I would have to wait until singles go on sale to get additional tickets. I ordered a package by phone several hours after the box office opened, so they had some time to figure this out. It's surprising and disappointing that a major operation like Lincoln Center would be so disorganized. In addition to this snafu, they haven't posted a chart showing which seats fall into which price range or even a seating chart on their site. This is the kind of amateurishness you might expect from a small ballet school performing at a school auditorium, not the premiere performing arts center in New York City. I hope somebody on their staff looks at this discussion board from time to time.

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Cali, I'd be upset if I were you. We're confused by the conflicting info. We didn't want to wait until late March to buy single tickets by then all the good seats will be gone, so we prepared for the worst and to buy additional tickets just to maintain the 1:1:1 ratio we thought the package deal required assuming that there would be no shortage of takers for the extra tickets. But in the end that's not necessary, we're extremely happy we got all our excellent seats at fantastic prices. I suspect the box office staffs did't understand package rules fully or interpreted them differently, or rules weren't written clearly, or it's to complicate to incorporate all the rules into ticketing software, who knows?

I am familiar with second ring price structure because all of our seats are located there. The prices are $40, 55, 80, 120, and 175. All the $40 seats are in the double-letter section. $55 seats are at the extreme ends of C, D & E rows. $175 seats are A101-117, A1-11, and A2-12. $120 seats are A13-35, A14-36, B101-118, B1-7, and B2-8.

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Thanks for the detail on seating, Mussel. I think I'm going to call back and give them my transaction number for the package so they can verify that I qualify. I rummaged around their web site again this morning looking for a seating chart -- nothing. It sounds like Buddy got the same information on the phone yesterday that I was given, viz., that he'd have to come back in late March to get more single performances. My operator put me on hold for several minutes so she could verify that this was the policy.

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I think the best strategy is to order all the tickets you want when you have at least a set and let the software process your order, cross your finger and hope it'll go thru. And do not ask anyone to clarify the package rules when you order. That's what I did at the box office, I told her the numbers of tickets I wanted for each date in chronological order and the order went thru with 20% off the whole shebang. She's extremely pleasant and helpful during the whole process.

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It sounds like Buddy got the same information on the phone yesterday that I was given, viz., that he'd have to come back in late March to get more single performances. My operator put me on hold for several minutes so she could verify that this was the policy.

As a possible clarification, California, I wasn't interested in the package and simply inquired when single performance tickets could be purchased. The point I meant to add to your post was that Nonmembers could buy these tickets probably within a week after Members, "the beginning of April."

I also would like to see Svetlana Lunkina as much as possible. She is such a beautiful dancer. Perhaps this is a fine opportunity for folks in Canada where she is now performing. I hope she finds a worthy place somewhere. Back at the Bolshoi would be just fine if she would be happy there.

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Wonderful news about Alexandrova!

Going back a few posts regarding ticket purchasing for the Bolshoi's performances at the Koch Theater, based on my personal experience the treatment you get on the phone is VASTLY different from the treatment at the box office windows. I will NEVER purchase on the phone again. The box office was much more liberal.

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It's not surprising that there's a kind of "bonus" that comes with being on scene, and I wish I were on scene, but one could make a perfectly rational argument that someone coming from out of town should not have things made more difficult or less attractive for them. (Putting aside the ballet-fan context: tourism is a major NY industry...) Anyway, I was not happy that over the phone I was not permitted to make the kind of Bolshoi purchases people describe having made at the box office.

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After mussel reported on being able to buy all the tickets desired at the box office, even if they were not part of the 3-ballet package, I called the box office again to say how unhappy I was that people were being treated differently over the phone and at the in-person box office. The operator said the box office people were wrong and a glitch in the software had allowed a few to slip through, but all had been fixed! The phone operators, box office personnel, and the software were all following the same rule, viz., that you can only buy the 3-ballet packages and not additional tickets. Hah!

I was in NYC this past weekend for Balanchine's birthday weekend and stopped at the box office to pick up the 3-ballet package I had ordered by phone. I then asked: by any chance can I go ahead and buy the rest of my tickets for the season, even though they're not part of a package? She called somebody and then said, "sure." I proceeded to buy everything I wanted. With the discount. It's a crazy situation, as Drew just pointed out, and very unfair to out-of-towners. It would have been easier for them just to say, if you buy a 3-ballet package, you can go ahead and order singles for the rest of the season and be done with it.

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The whole point of the package deals is to encourage people to buy early and to buy more. I don't understand why the phone people is so on a mission to prevent patrons to buy more tickets. The sales prevention department at Lincoln Center must be the most successful and most innovative in the world.

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A news item today from the Independent says Vasiliev and Osipova will be dancing together in New York in 2014. Could it be that they will be surprise guests at the Bolshoi in July in NY? Or that she will be a surprise addition to the ABT Met season? Of course, the article could also be wrong...

. . . they are due to perform in Milan, Tokyo, Moscow, St Petersburg, New York and California in 2014.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/backstage-no-wedding-bells-for-ballets-brangelina-9097309.html

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If I had to guess, I would bet it will be appearances with the Mik in the Fall at the Koch.

As for the debacle on phone sales for the summer festival, the people who are working the phones are working under a supervisor who is applying a very stringent set of rules regarding ticket packages. After being completely frustrated on the phone, I went to the box office a few days later and was able to make my purchases with no hassles. The person who is supervising the phone sales is reading restrictions into the terms of the package offers which are not in writing, but only in his own mind. Ridiculous.

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This is my first time trying to buy tickets to an event like this. I really, really want to see Spartacus, and I would be delighted to see Don Quixote as well. I'd also like to catch Olga Smirnova, and I know the only major part she does in these ballets is in Swan Lake (also that another lyric in 'How do you solve a problem like Maria?' might have been 'How do you figure out the Bolshoi casting in advance?'). Anyways, in light of finances, I would settle for just seeing Spartacus.

BUT, does waiting for the single tickets to go on sale mean that they're likely to sell out? I would go to some extreme lengths to get to see the Bolshoi perform Spartacus live. I realize there are no guarantees, but would it be reasonable for me to wait until March?

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