Guest fountainhall Posted January 19, 2013 Posted January 19, 2013 In a world filled with ghosts, sorcerers, apparitions and witches, perhaps we should not be so surprised. Add in a heavy dose of envy, greed, ambition, betrayal and back-stabbing, and the sad event of Thursday is put into some sort of steaming cauldron-like context. No, it’s not a scene from another Harry Potter book. The setting is one of the world’s most glamorous, home to one of the world’s legendary artistic enterprises – Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet. As in the movie “The Black Swan”, though, what runs through the minds of those who make up that illustrious company and its supporters runs far deeper than the beauty of its creations and the precision of its corps de ballet. As most will have read, Sergei Filin, the boyish, handsome 42-year old artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet was the victim of a vicious acid attack as he approached his Moscow apartment block on Thursday evening. He suffered 3rd degree burns to his face and neck, and is in danger of losing his sight. For almost 20 years one of the Bolshoi’s star dancers, Filin’s appointment to the top job did not please everyone. And the Bolshoi’s scandals and power struggles have long dominated headlines. The attack is the latest and most gruesome scandal to strike Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre – once Russia's great cultural pride and now a symbol of the violence and corruption engulfing the country . . . Filin was appointed artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet in March 2011, amid a dirty power play that saw the company's deputy director, Gennady Yanin, forced to step down after a suspected rival leaked pictures of him in bed with other men online. Filin’s predecessor has also lashed out at what has been happening at the Bolshoi - "Many of the Bolshoi's illnesses are one snowball – a disgusting group of fawners that is friendly with artists, speculators and scalpers, half-crazy fans ready to slit the throats of their idols' competitors, cynical hackers, lies in the press and scandalous interviews of employees. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/jan/18/bolshoi-ballet-director-acid-attack Quote
TotallyOz Posted January 19, 2013 Posted January 19, 2013 I was watching this on the news as I sat in a restaurant. It is horribly sad. I just can't imagine what would cause someone to do such a horrendous thing. Quote
Guest timmberty Posted January 19, 2013 Posted January 19, 2013 sad as it is, im sure hes no innocent. a few toes would have been stepped on for him to have got the job. corruption isnt only in thailand. Quote
Guest fountainhall Posted January 19, 2013 Posted January 19, 2013 Innocent or not, I'm sure you'll agree there's no valid reason to have acid thrown all over your face in the middle of the night! Besides, in this case, I suspect there's a chance he could well be 'innocent'. In those sort of companies - of which I do have some experience - it's often the people above who create the issues. But as The Guardian report points out, the Bolshoi seems to house a nest of pretty virulent vipers. Quote
