Supporters of the Bolshoi Ballet’s tour of Britain threatened today to take reprisals against Jewish artists appearing in London if the Bolshoi’s opening night performance is disrupted. The threat by Bolshoi fans was directed at groups protesting the treatment of Soviet Jews who said they had tickets to the premier performance at the Coliseum Theater tomorrow night and would create chaos.
One Bolshoi supporter said “If there are any incidents inside, we are going to take action. We will go to every performance given by Jewish artists from Rubinstein down and interrupt their concerts.”
Members of the Corps de Ballet who arrived at the heavily guarded theater for their first rehearsal last night were greeted by scores of demonstrators dressed in prison garb and carrying food they said represented the “starvation diet” of Jewish “prisoners of conscience” in Soviet forced labor camps. The demonstrators were members of the Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry, one of several groups protesting the Bolshoi’s six-week British tour which opens at the Coliseum tomorrow.
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