By Robert D. Thomas

Music Critic

Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily
News

Hard to tell whether this is, as one media outlet put it,
the end of an era but James Levine has withdrawn from his fall concerts at the
Metropolitan Opera and the company has elevated Principal Guest Conductor Fabio
Luisi to the title of Principal Conductor.

Levine, now 68, has headed the Met since 1986. He fell while
on vacation Vermont where he was recovering from a series of back operations.
Earlier this year he ended his tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony
due to his ongoing health issues.

Luisi will conduct most of Levine’s fall assignments,
including a new production of Mozart’s Don
Giovanni, which is scheduled to open Oct. 13, and a new production of
Wagner’s Siegfried 0opening on Oct.
27. As a result of these changes, Luisi has withdrawn from assignments leading
orchestras in Rome, Vienna and San Francisco (he was supposed to lead
performances of Verdi’s Requiem in San Francisco beginning Oct. 13; the SFO has
not announced a replacement conductor as of this morning).

More from the New York Times HERE.

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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved.
Portions may be quoted with attribution.