The evening performance of the opera Sadko, by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, had only just begun when things went wrong. According to an eyewitness, the overture was still in progress when disaster struck.
Initially it was said that a heavy set had fallen on one of the actors on stage during a set change. But it was later reported that the 37-year-old actor was in the wrong place when a set piece was lowered: he stepped back, while he was supposed to step forward.
Whatever the case, some onlookers said they initially thought the accident was part of the production, until someone onstage yelled, “Stop! Stop! Call an ambulance! There’s blood here!” But before the emergency services arrived, the actor had already died.
The performance was immediately interrupted and the audience was asked to leave the hall, the Bolshoi Theater said in a statement. The theater also says that the police have come to the scene to investigate exactly what happened. The lamented actor has been working in the world-famous theater since 2002.
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