As friend, sometime editor and mentor Steve Smith noted at Night after Night a few days ago, James Levine withdrew from last Monday's Carnegie Hall concert due to a shoulder injury he sustained after an onstage fall at Boston's Symphony Hall.
Tonight brings this message from the Met:
"Metropolitan Opera general manager Joseph Volpe announced today that James Levine, the Met’s music director, will undergo surgery for a torn rotator cuff. The operation and recuperation period will require Maestro Levine to cancel performances for the remainder of the Met’s season including the company’s tour to Japan from June 4 to 24.
The scheduled Met performances that Maestro Levine will be unable to conduct include “Fidelio,” the new production of “Don Pasquale,” “Lohengrin,” and “Parsifal,” as well as the Gala honoring Joseph Volpe that closes the season on May 20. Maestro Levine was also slated to conduct “Die Walküre” and “Don Giovanni” during the Met’s three-week Japan tour.
On March 1, Maestro Levine fell onstage at Symphony Hall in Boston during ovations at the conclusion of a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert. Subsequent X-rays and MRI results showed that, although he had not broken any bones, there was rotator cuff damage, which his doctors have determined will require surgery. Maestro Levine holds the conductor’s baton in his right hand, and the surgery will take place on his right shoulder....
The Met will announce replacement conductors for the performances affected by Maestro Levine’s withdrawal as that information becomes available. "
One expects these kinds of reports more from the world of sports, no? The World Baseball Classic or spring training somewhere, perhaps...but it's a reminder of how deeply physical an activity performing classical music actually is.
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