Master and Margarita Tickets

Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Russia

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Available Dates: 27 - 29 Jun, 2025 (5 events)

Important Info

Type: Modern Ballet

City: Moscow, Russia

Duration: 2h 30min with 1 interval

Acts: 2

Intervals: 1

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Creators

Composer: Alfred Schnittke

Composer: Milko Lazar

Choreography: Edward Clug

Overview

Libretto by Edward Clug after Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel of the same name.

Synopsis

Act I

The Master is devoured by his work. He makes the image of Pontius Pilate come to life. The Master wakes up to reality. He is in hospital.

At the Patriarch’s Ponds Annushka spills the oil. Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny have a heated argument. An elegantly dressed gentleman appears: Woland himself. He predicts Berlioz’s upcoming death. The prophecy is instantly fulfilled: Berlioz gets his head cut off under a tram.

Bezdomny is shocked. He is stalked by a weird pair: Behemoth and Fagot. Trying to shake them off, he gets into a series of awkward situations, but the uninvited companions keep following him everywhere. Terrified, Ivan jumps into a river.

Woland and his entourage – Behemoth, Fagot, Azazello, and Hella – come to Berlioz’s flat. Styopa Likhodeyev, administrative director of the Variety Theatre, is asleep in one of the rooms. Woland’s henchmen wake him up and remind him of his invitation for Woland to perform at the theatre, although he recalls no such agreement whatsoever.

Writers have a good time at the so-called Griboyedov’s House. Ivan Bezdomny spoils their fun by bringing the news about Berlioz’s death.
This news is regarded as a joke or a mad prank. Voland appears, which eventually drives Bezdomny mad, and the writers send him to hospital, to the care of the famous psychiatrist professor Stravinsky.

Professor Stravinsky tries to calm Ivan down, but the man is haunted by a vision of Woland.
A stranger appears. It is the Master. He tells Bezdomny a story of his life and his relationship with Margarita and disappears. Bezdomny is left in the care of the hospital’s keepers.

The audience of the Variety Theatre is excited: master of ceremonies George Bengalsky announces ‘a performance of black magic’. Bengalsky also tries to participate in the show put on by Woland’s henchmen, and gets his head screwed off by Behemoth. The audience cheers, while Bengalsky begs to place his head back.

Woland appears. Entranced by his performance, the audience gets undressed. Having made sure that the audience is completely under their spell, Woland and his entourage disappear, leaving all the exits locked.

Pontius Pilate and Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy (Berlioz’s house-manager) appear before the mesmerized crowd. Bosoy throws counterfeit banknotes in the air, the crowd goes mad, and everyone is hospitalised.
The Master recollects his life and his love affair with Margarita, his story is heard by Ivan Bezdomny.

Act II

Woland and his entourage have settled in the late Berlioz’s flat which is now an eerie place. Berlioz’s uncle Maximilian Andreyevich Poplavsky comes to his nephew’s funeral, but Woland’s henchmen send him away.

The funeral takes place without Poplavsky. The bier is followed by the writers.
There also are critics who have been scrutinizing the Master’s output, especially one named Latunsky. The critics’ criticism makes the Master feel crucified.
But he keeps thinking of Pilate, and the Pilate enters into a dialogue with his creator, eventually setting the Master free.

Margarita prevents the destruction of the Master’s work, but fails to make Latunsky recognize its worth. Margarita accepts his gift and undergoes a miraculous transformation. Now she can be in several places at the same time, and fly above the city, and destroy Latunsky the critic.

Woland introduces himself to Margarita and leads her into an eery and uncanny waltz. In the name of her love Margarita is willing to sacrifice her soul and to become the queen of the Satan's ball.

The ball begins. Margarita is the queen.
A night among the demonic creatures takes a heavy toll on her, but she finds it in herself to pity Frieda who strangled her own child and obtains a pardon for her.
Margarita is given a skull-shaped goblet filled with blood. She swallows it and passes out in Woland’s arms.

Woland and his entourage reconstruct for Margarita the love nest of a dwelling she used to share with the Master.
The Master is reunited with Margarita, his masterpiece intact. An eternity of peaceful rest awaits the two lovers.

Venue Info

Bolshoi Theatre - Moscow
Teatralnaya Square 1

The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and opera performances. Before the October Revolution it was a part of the Imperial Theatres of the Russian Empire along with Maly Theatre (Small Theatre) in Moscow and a few theatres in Saint Petersburg (Hermitage Theatre, Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theatre, later Mariinsky Theatre and others).

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world. It is by far the world's biggest ballet company, with more than 200 dancers. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a world-famous leading school of ballet. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.

The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia (its iconic neoclassical façade is depicted on the Russian 100-ruble banknote). On 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. The official cost of the renovation is 21 billion rubles ($688 million). However, other Russian authorities and other people connected to it claimed much more public money was spent. The renovation included restoring acoustics to the original quality (which had been lost during the Soviet Era), as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi.

The company was founded on 28 March [O.S. 17 March] 1776, when Catherine II granted Prince Peter Ouroussoff a licence to organise theatrical performances, balls and other forms of entertainment. Ouroussoff set up the theatre in collaboration with English tightrope walker Michael Maddox. Initially, it held performances in a private home, but it acquired the Petrovka Theatre and on 30 December 1780, it began producing plays and operas, thus establishing what would become the Bolshoi Theatre. Fire destroyed the Petrovka Theatre on 8 October 1805, and the New Arbat Imperial Theatre replaced it on 13 April 1808, however it also succumbed to fire during the French invasion of Moscow in 1812.

The first instance of the theatre was built between 1821 and 1824, designed and supervised to completion by architect Joseph Bové based upon an initial competition-winning design created by Petersburg-based Russian architect Andrei Mikhailov that was deemed too costly to complete. Bové also concurrently designed the nearby Maly Theatre and the surrounding Theater Square, The new building opened on 18 January 1825 as the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre with a performance of Fernando Sor's ballet, Cendrillon. Initially, it presented only Russian works, but foreign composers entered the repertoire around 1840.