Posted on 03/12/2006 10:49:31 AM PST by randita
March 12, 2006
Injury Will Sideline Metropolitan Opera's Director for Weeks
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
James Levine, the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, needs shoulder surgery and has been forced to pull out of the rest of the season, the Met said yesterday, a sharp blow that sent it scrambling for replacements.
Mr. Levine, who also leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra, fell onstage at Symphony Hall in Boston on March 1 and tore the rotator cuff of his right shoulder. He is expected to have surgery to repair it on March 20. That is the opening night of a run of "Fidelio" at the Met that he was supposed to conduct.
The loss of Mr. Levine for the remaining 10 weeks of the Met's season, as he recuperates, is a major setback for the house, where he was scheduled to lead a slew of performances through mid-May. They include six nights of "Fidelio," nine of a new production of "Don Pasquale," six of "Lohengrin" and three of "Parsifal." The injury will also keep him from going with the Met on a three-week tour in Japan, where he was to direct four performances of "Die Walküre" and four of "Don Giovanni" as well as an orchestra concert with the soprano Renée Fleming.
Mr. Levine, in a statement released by the Met, expressed "enormous disappointment and frustration."
"The music I make with my wonderful colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony is absolutely central to my life," he said. "I look forward to taking up the baton again as soon as humanly possible." He added that he expected to be back in time to conduct the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood this summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
classical music ping
Have either of you heard if Bob Cobb is available?
Dear randita,
Thanks for the ping!
Classical Music Ping List ping!
If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.
Thanks!
sitetest
I don't think he is available, and I do hear that he doesn't like being called "Bob".
I have season tickets to the Boston Symphony, and to be honest, the orchestra seems to play better under guest conductors. I think Levine gives his "A" performances at The Met.
I'm ready.
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