James Levine was too ill Wednesday night to conduct Les Contes d’Hoffmann, sending on John Keenan in his place.  That same night PBS telecast a performance of Tosca taped earlier this fall which Joseph Colaneri had to take over for the injured Levine.

You will be happy to hear that Maestro Jimmy seems to be back in fettle for Saturday afternoon’s Hoffmann and (what La Cieca presumes is surely the real point here) a concert with the Met Orchestra and Stephanie Blythe performing Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 at Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon.