Conductor Levine withdrawing from upcoming shows
AP, Sep 29, 2009 3:25 pm PDTConductor James Levine is withdrawing from upcoming performances with the Metropolitan Opera and Boston Symphony Orchestra to have surgery for a herniated disk in his back.
His operation has forced the BSO to scramble to find a replacement conductor for Thursday's opening night of Carnegie Hall's season.
Levine has had a series of health problems in recent years. He tore his rotator cuff in March 2006 when he tripped and fell on the stage of Boston's Symphony Hall during ovations, and his right kidney was removed in July 2008 because of a malignant tumor. A hand tremor that was evident in the late 1990s appears to have disappeared in recent years.
Levine conducted the opening night performance of Puccini's "Tosca" at the Met on Sept. 21. He canceled his next two performances of "Tosca" at the Met but conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra twice.
Ronald Wilford, Levine's manager, said Tuesday that the 67-year-old music director will have immediate surgery. The Met said Levine should return to the podium in time to conduct a new production of Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)" that opens Dec. 3.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra said it will find someone for Thursday's concert. Assistant conductors Shi-Yeon Sung and Julian Kuerti will take over other upcoming programs.
Joseph Colaneri will take over Levine's autumn performances of the Met's much-criticized new staging of "Tosca." A conductor must be found to replace Levine for four performances of Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" in a revival that starts Oct. 13.
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