THE RUSSIAN BALLET

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20693, 31 December 1938, Page 15 (Supplement)

THE RUSSIAN BALLET

COST £60,000 FOR AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND TOUR DOUBTFUL The total cost of the Russian Ballet Company’s visit to Australia is nearlv i £60,000. j Here arc some of the items in that formidable sum: Fares and freights, £14.000; salaries of members of the company, £22.000: orchestra, £10,000; theatre rents. £0000: payment to stage staffs, £5000; royalties, £IOOO. The orchestra costs nearly half as j much as the dancers. The 40-odd players eat up between them more than £OOO a week. The leaders earn anything up to £25 a man. So people who grumble at the high cost of seats for the ballet should think again. The management has I paid £1 4.000 as transport from Lon!don. Yet Londoners paid higher prices jto see the same company at Covent ! Stalls in London ranged from 10s | to £1 Is on ordinary nights and 15s to £1 5s for premieres. Jn Sydney the

corresponding figures are 7s Gd to 12s 6d ami 12s 6d to £1 Is. London circle prices were 10s to 15s and 15s to £1 Is; the Sydney figures, 7s 6d to 12s Gd and 10s to 12s 6d. In view of the high costs a New Zealand tour is doubtful.