Levine cancels Rosenkavalier, Tosca for back surgery
UPDATE: A press release from the Met adds that James Levine has withdrawn from performances of Der Rosenkavalier as well as Tosca.
Joseph Colaneri, who was already scheduled to conduct Tosca on October 3, 14, and 17, will take over Levine’s performances of the Puccini opera on October 6 and 10 matinee. (He already filled in for Levine conducting Tosca on September 24 and 28.)
The conductor for Der Rosenkavalier performances on October 13, 16, and 19 will be announced soon.
Levine’s doctors expect him to recover in time to conduct the new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann which opens December 3.
This just in:
James Levine to Undergo Surgery for Herniated Spinal Disc
Mr. Ronald Wilford, Chairman of Columbia Artists and James Levine’s manager has announced that Mr. Levine will undergo immediate surgery for a herniated spinal disc. The procedure necessitates withdrawing from his scheduled performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera.
Mr. Levine has withdrawn from performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston on Tuesday, September 29 and Saturday, October 3 and from Carnegie Hall’s opening night performance on Thursday, October 1. Mr. Levine has also withdrawn from performances of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera on October 6 and 10.
“But then Boston isn’t a very tech-savvy city, is it….”
Yeah. It’s the fault of those dummies at M.I.T.
not Richard Leech, Phillip Creech!!!!, The Rumor in the early 80s was that they hoped Creech would keep Levine away from the under 14 set, anyone who heard Creech “sing” knew he hadn’t been hired for his voice.
Paddy, OK, now I get La Cieca’s “rhymes with”
comment.
Yes I heard that rumor too about Phillip Screetch.
I certainly wish him well, particularly since I’ve had much less severe back issues that still hurt like hell, so sympathize.
That being said, I always found his a bit Rosenkavalier lacking in libido, so I’m not sad about someone else taking on some of those perfs.
I’ve always found his Rosenkavalier a bit lacking in libido.
That’s what that sentence is supposed to read like, not the hash I posted first.
I kept getting this image of Levine mounting Richard Leech in a most distasteful way…so glad for the clarification.
The only thing Levine was ever fit for mounting was a podium.
OK I was wrong. BSO GALA will be conducted by Daniele Gatti (updated at Carnegie Hall website just now).
Program changed too – or am I wrong? Since when was the Beethoven Coriolan overture on there?
38:
MAYBE,,,THE MET can try to get Maestro Gatti to fill in for some of Levine’s missed performances…?..I’d be curious to hear his “Rosenkavalier”…as he sounded great on the podium, in this summer’s “Parsifal”, at Bayreuth…
Time magazine, 1983:
Another charge is that Levine plays favorites with singers, overusing some voices while ignoring others. “Levine’s love affairs with certain voices are total,” complains a Met singer. “When he finds a voice he likes, he uses it over and over.” Like any other conductor, Levine has a roster of singers he finds congenial, among them Soprano Teresa Stratas, Tenor Placido Domingo and Baritone Milnes. Sometimes, as with veteran Diva Scotto, their voices are long faded but still histrionically effective. Sometimes they are not up to major-house standards, as with Tenor Philip Creech, whom Levine has pushed beyond the limit of his modest gifts.