Perhaps you’ve been wondering why James Levine has taken over the final two performances of this season’s Madama Butterfly at the Met. Could it be that Asher Fisch has fallen ill? Well, no, Maestro Fisch is just fine, thank you. In fact, La Cieca hears that Levine has returned so that these two performances can recorded for insertion into a DVD release of the Anthony Minghella production of Puccini’s tearjerker.

UPDATE: La Cieca was close on this one, if a bit muddy on the details. The extra Levine performances this season are to complete a CD (not a DVD) recording of the opera. However, the Butterfly will return in 2008-09 hence when it will be telecast, DVD’d and probably by that time distributed by direct stimulation of the neural cortex. No word on whether the 2006 cast will return to reprise their roles, or for that matter if Gallardo-Domas will still be singing by then.