cover of episode The Phantom of the Met (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

The Phantom of the Met (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

2024/10/14
logo of podcast MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Chapters

Helen Hagnus, a 31-year-old accomplished violinist, was performing at the Met on July 23, 1980. During the first intermission, she left her prized violin in the orchestra pit and went backstage, never to return.
  • Helen was a musical prodigy from a young age.
  • She performed with symphonies and opera/ballet companies across Europe and North America.
  • Helen left her violin in the orchestra pit during intermission to meet Valery Panov, a famous Russian dancer.

Shownotes Transcript

On a summer night in 1980, the audience in New York’s world famous Metropolitan Opera House rose to their feet and applauded at the end of an international ballet performance. The dancers and musicians rushed backstage and congratulated each other on a great show, but one of the musicians was missing. Her prized violin sat on a chair in the orchestra pit. She had left it there during intermission of the ballet, and she had never come back. NYPD Detectives would soon descend on the Met, where they would find themselves chasing down stagehands, musicians, and one of the most famous Russian dancers in the world, desperately trying to discover what had happened to the violin player who just disappeared – while thousands of people were in the audience.

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