No one is more frustrated over the serious health problems James Levine has struggled with since 2006 than Mr. Levine himself, as he has indicated in numerous interviews and news releases. For six years he has been juggling demanding music directorships at the Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But because of various surgical procedures and injuries requiring long recuperative periods, he has missed months of accumulated performances at each institution, not just in Boston and New York but on American and international tours.
Since it was announced last month that Mr. Levine, 66, must undergo surgery for a painful herniated disc, Mark Volpe, the managing director of the Boston Symphony, and Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Met, have made candid statements about the need to have serious talks with Mr. Levine to assess what he can realistically commit to.
At the Met he was to have led four performances of Puccini’s “Tosca,” starting on Wednesday night, and three performances in May of Berg’s “Lulu,” a work he conducts incomparably. Fabio Luisi, an accomplished conductor, will take his place.
In a way, the impact of Mr. Levine’s absences from the Boston Symphony can be seen by looking at the orchestra’s four concerts this season at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Levine missed three of the four, including the prestigious season-opening gala and, most recently, a performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” that he intended as a major statement.
Part of the job of being a music director at an orchestra or an opera house involves simply being there: that is, being fit and focused enough to provide stability, foster growth and, most essential, bring artistic plans to fruition.
Think of what Alan Gilbert has had at stake during the current season, his first as music director of the New York Philharmonic. His appointment was greeted with cheers by those who wanted the Philharmonic to turn a page and revitalize itself with a young, dynamic visionary. But there were doubters, especially among tradition-bound subscribers, and Mr. Gilbert had a lot to prove.
His programming ideas have been fresh, and the orchestra has been playing terrifically for him. But imagine if he had missed weeks of performances this fall. Or consider what a setback it would be if he suddenly had to withdraw from conducting this weekend’s “Contact!” programs, the contemporary-music series that he inaugurated, or the May performances of Ligeti’s “Grand Macabre,” an ambitious new venture for the Philharmonic in presenting a semistaged production of a challenging contemporary opera that has yet to be produced at the Met.
Mr. Levine’s absences from the Boston Symphony have been especially exasperating for the organization. The orchestra sought out Mr. Levine as a successor to Seiji Ozawa, and wanted him so badly that it was willing to punt for two seasons without a full-time music director, waiting for his commitment to the Munich Philharmonic to end. His inaugural season, starting with an exhilarating performance of Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” at Symphony Hall in Boston in October 2004, fulfilled all expectations.
From the start of his tenure, audiences had to adjust to seeing him conduct while seated in a conductor’s chair with a back support. No one cared, because the playing he drew from the orchestra was so lustrous, nuanced and precise. The Boston Symphony seemed re-energized and inspired.
But in 2006 he missed months of work and his first scheduled tour with the Boston Symphony because of a fall onstage after a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He injured his rotator cuff, which required surgery and a lengthy period of rehabilitation. During this time off, he vowed to change his ways and mend his health.
“I’m going to do what the therapist tells me to do,” he said in a 2006 interview. “I want to be in a different kind of physical resilience.” That resilience seemed short-lived. He continued to struggle with his weight and sometimes looked labored during performances.
His health setback in 2008 was an ominous problem that can affect anyone: a cancerous cyst on a kidney had to be removed. Mr. Levine had arranged for the entire contemporary-music festival at Tanglewood that summer to be devoted to Elliott Carter in the year he turned 100. Mr. Levine was to have had a major role in the programs, which offered 47 Carter works in 10 concerts over 5 days. He missed the entire festival, as well as other major projects that summer.
And he has never fully regained his stamina and health since then. Last fall he was to have conducted all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Boston Symphony. A Beethoven symphony cycle is hardly innovative programming, but somehow, during his long career, Mr. Levine had never conducted the complete works. He sold the project to the management as a chance for him and his orchestra to make a statement. The performances were to be recorded live, in hopes of releasing a complete set of recordings. Mr. Levine missed all the Beethoven concerts because of spinal surgery. The project became simply another run-through of staples with a roster of guest conductors.
In the fall Mr. Levine is scheduled to conduct Wagner’s “Rheingold” on opening night of the Met’s 2010-11 season, the first installment of the new “Ring” production directed by Robert Lepage. This is a major, and risky, endeavor for the Met. I actually thought that Mr. Levine might decide to opt out. Having owned the “Ring” at the Met over the last quarter century, he might have thought, “Been there, done that,” and handed the scores over to someone else.
Instead, he embraced the Lepage “Ring” as a chance to combine his deep experience in the music with a fresh take, and to work with a new cast and an orchestra full of eager younger players who have joined the ranks in the last 10 years.
Fine. But will he be available? Without him, the whole point of the project changes.
It would be hard for even a completely healthy and tireless conductor to hold down these two directorships. At the very least, Mr. Levine may have to choose. If not, sadly, the choice may be made for him.
コメント 0