The legendary Bolshoi Theater continues to produce a series of unsettling stories as a report Thursday said police were investigating the death of one of the theater's violinists from a fall in the orchestra pit.
On Tuesday, violinist Victor Sedov entered the unlit pit area of the new stage, apparently believing that its bottom was level with the ground floor as before the theater's reconstruction. He fell down from a height of about six meters, the Investigative Committee said in a statement carried by Interfax.
Sedov's death comes in a strange year for the theater. In January a hitman hired by one of the Bolshoi's dancers attacked the head of ballet, Sergei Filin, blinding him with acid, while the director of the Bolshoi, Anatoly Iksanov, was fired earlier this month with more than a year left on his contract.
Tuesday's violent episode was discovered at 2:30 p.m., when a theater employee making a routine fire safety round found Sedov lying unconscious on the pit's concrete floor.
He was taken to the Sklifosovsky Hospital, but passed away Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Bolshoi's press secretary Katerina Novikova said the cause of Sedov's death will be determined by a special commission. A decision regarding further legal action will be made depending on the outcome of the police inquiry into the incident.
Victor Sedov had worked in the theater for 40 years.
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