Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet who was nearly blinded in January in an acid attack that was sparked by professional jealousies, will return to Moscow this weekend after spending eight months receiving medical treatment in Germany, Reuters reported on Thursday.
But just what role Mr. Filin would play in the ballet company that he led, and when he might return to work, remained unclear.
The Bolshoi’s spokeswoman, Katerina Novikova, told Reuters that the troupe hoped Mr. Filin would recover and return but that “to what extent he will be able to take part in the life of the troupe, that will become clear in the nearest future.†The theater did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
A soloist at the Bolshoi, Pavel Dmitrichenko, confessed to hiring two accomplices to carry out the attack on Mr. Filin, but said that he thought Mr. Filin would simply be beaten, not doused with sulfuric acid. Mr. Dmitrichenko’s common-law wife, the ballerina Anzhelina Vorontsova, was said to be frustrated at her inability to land top roles. Ms. Vorontsova later resigned from the company, and in July, the theater’s general director, Anatoly Iksanov, was removed in an apparent effort to put an end to the string of scandals there.
