Fabio Luisi dumps Royal Opera House for Met offer

 

The Metropolitan Opera have just announced that Fabio Luisi is to replace the ailing James Levine conducting Das Rheingold on 30 March and 2 April.

Just one small problem. Luisi is booked to conduct Aida at Covent Garden on those two nights.

Now Luisi is not known for his Wagner. And until he dumped the ROH, he wasn't free either. In other words, there were more obvious candidates available. So Luisi's last minute step into the breach should be viewed as an auspicious one by Met-watchers. What it means for his future at Covent Garden is probably the last thing on his mind, given his form.

As for Aida, the Royal Opera House website hasn't been updated, but it's likely 'B' conductor Daniele Rustioni will step into the breach. (UPDATE - Rustioni is now confirmed.)

Comments

[su traditor]

21st Cast Amendment for 2010/11 Season

AIDA

Cast Amendment as follows:

Fabio Luisi will no longer conduct the performances on March 30 and April 2 2011. This is to enable him to stand in for James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera conducting Das Rheingold.

Therefore, the performances on March 30 and April 2 2011 will now be conducted by Daniele Rustioni.

[Musicvenues]

Bad for Covent Garden, but great for the Met, where Luisi is principal guest conductor. Probably a sort of cooperation between the two houses. Anyway, Luisi did a great job in this Aida, will he conduct the performance on april 6, which he is scheduled for?

[sub opera]

Those of you/us who read Opera-l (a fatuous NY-centric platform for over-the-top parochialism) would be aware Opera-lers claim the Met orchestra is the best opera orchestra in the world.

Luisi must obviously concur and us, poor Londoners, are left with the unheard-of Rustioni.

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Intermezzo replies - I suspect Luisi's thinking is a bit longer-term than that. Rustioni has conducted at Covent Garden before - he was on the Young Artists programme briefly - so at least he knows the orchestra.

[GLT]

Am I the only one who thinks this is rather unseemly? I'm used to Gheorghiu and Netrebko letting down Covent Garden audiences, but not conductors. Still, looking forward with anticipation to Saturday's Aida - with Luisi, if the Met permits!

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Intermezzo replies - it is rather odd. Ok, Luisi is the Met's principal guest conductor, but that doesn't imply sick cover duties. Gergiev certainly never dropped everything for the Met when he held the title.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

IM - Presumably by longer-term thinking, you mean Luisi is possibly already eyeing up Levine's job before he has left it. Which is strange considering he starts as Music Director of the Zurich Opera in 2012. As you say above he has "form" - clearly contracts are meaningless to him. And he probably knows that in times of financial crisis, the RO aren't going to expend any energy, let alone spend short-in-supply money, to pursue him through the courts. The fact that they have an understudy conductor in the first place suggests that they may have been expecting something to go pear-shaped.

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Intermezzo replies - Zurich's interim MD, Gatti, probably wouldn't mind a contract extension either........

Presumably Rustioni's fee is lower than Luisi's, so Covent Garden might even be quite pleased at the way things have panned out. As you say, bringing in a #2 implies forward thinking.

[Jon]

I saw a suggestion that Peter Gelb took the trouble to speak to the Opera House and request the release of Luisi, which is more than usually happens on these occassions; I remember when Diana Damrau cancelled a recital so that she could replace Netrebko (I think) at the Met, the recital organisers were furious at the lack of courtesy shown to them by Damrau and the Met.

Although Luisi's contract at Zurich would seem to rule him out as Levine's immediate successor (unless he decides to run out on Zurich as well), there is also the matter of the forthcoming Ring cycles at the Met. If Levine isn't up to it, Gelb may be looking for a prestigious replacement to conduct the whole cycle.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

Prestigious replacements for the Ring Cycle are hard to find at short notice - and how many prestigious conductors both know the Ring well and would be able to take on a time-consuming new production with a year's notice. I think that rules out Barenboim, Haitink, Dohnanyi, Thielemann, Runnicles, Mehta so we are already looking at the less prestigious Ring-Meister. Can even Luisi free up his schedule to take over three Ring cycles spread out over two months. My money would be on someone like Robert Spano.....