Intermezzo

Levine out; Luisi in

AP

Following a fall in which he damaged a vertebra, James Levine has withdrawn from the remainder of his Metropolitan Opera assignments this year.

Fabio Luisi, who recently upped sticks to New York, replaces him for all performances.

Elevated from Principal Guest Conductor to Principal Conductor, Luisi moves a step closer to the big prize. Levine remains as Music Director. For now.

Fabio's fabulous Aida at the Royal Opera House

Aida - Royal Opera House, 19 March 2011

I feel sorry for anyone who hoped to hear Luisi conduct Aida and now won't, because on Saturday night he did a superb job. He never achieved the blood-and-guts, life-and-death heights that Pappano can - but then how many conductors do? We're extravagantly spoilt in that respect.

On every other count it was hard to fault him. The orchestra played with spirit and refinement, the singers were wonderfully supported, and Luisi held enough back to make the big moments tell - the third act climax was a heart-racing eruption. He took the music at face value and invested it with a colour and delicacy that belied the work's reputation. It sounded fresh and new.

And all that despite the godawful fugliness of David McVicar's production assailing his delicate aesthetic sensibilities at every turn (incidentally, he was correctly dressed from spiffy shirtstud to polished pump, and emerged without a single crease).  What a champ.

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.)

Fabio Luisi resigns suddenly from Dresden

Dresden Semperoper chief conductor Fabio Luisi has resigned his post suddenly and without warning.

Although it was announced last year that Luisi would be leaving to become chief conductor of Zurich Opera from 2012, it was initially expected that he would see out his contract with Dresden until the new chief conductor Christian Thielemann takes over in two years' time.

However, dissatisfaction has been brewing in the orchestra for a while now. Publicly-aired grievances have been related to pay and status rather than Luisi himself. But the conductor has never really settled into the city's musical life since his appointment - a point that rankles locally is that he never moved his family to Dresden. And despite his acknowledged expertise in a narrow area of the repertoire -  particularly Strauss, Verdi and Mahler - the general opinion is that, especially outside the opera house, he has not always maintained the high standards for which the Dresden Staatskapelle is renowned, with allegations of insufficient rehearsals and worse. The German press have even seen fit to toss their worst possible disparagement - Kapellmeistertypus - his way on more than one occasion.

Luisi recently withdrew from several January concerts, claiming sickness. Local cynics noted that this followed ecstatically-received guest conducting appearances by Thielemann. Expectations of Luisi's premature departure became rife.

So few were surprised when he handed in his cards on Wednesday, with that old favourite 'artistic differences' cited as the cause. More specifically, Luisi explains (via a press release) that broadcaster ZDF have had too much say in the programming for the Dresdeners' 2010 New Year's Concert, which is to be televised. The direction taken by incoming General Director Ulrike Hessler has, Luisi believes, compromised the orchestra's artistic and aesthetic standards.

Translation? - he's peeved that the preferred choice of conductor for this prestigious broadcast is Christian Thielemann.

This leaves a number of Dresden operas without a conductor, the most pressing of which is a Ring cycle programmed for February and March.  Now who on earth knows it well enough to step in at short notice?

*** UPDATE *** 

Prom 56: Lang Lang meets the Staatskapelle Dresden

Prom 56: Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden / Luisi / Lang Lang - Royal Albert Hall, 27 August 2009

This is what the Proms are best at. Modestly-scaled works may be cruelly exposed by the troublesome acoustic, but the army demanded by Strauss's Alpine Symphony - 100+ musicians, a vast battery of percussion and of course the mighty organ - filled the Royal Albert Hall where others fail. The Staatskapelle Dresden's agile, propulsive performance was not without blemish. But Fabio Luisi balanced his forces beautifully, and telling details like pizzicato raindrops were perfectly framed against an unsentimentally-wrought landscape.

Inspired programming paired it with traces by Rebecca Saunders. Strauss takes us up the mountain and down again; Rebecca Saunders circles round it, contemplating from all angles. Monumental blocks of sound materialise and evanesce, shape and colour changing with each appearance. The leering, jagged crux warns this is not cosy mood music. It's hypnotic yet unsettling. 

Too many of the 'contemporary' slots in this year's Proms have been given over to John Adams and his warm baths in post-modernist cliche. This formed a rare and essential diversion.

Too bad a toddler's wails pierced through the quieter sections. I'm all for welcoming kids, but there are limits - a concert hall is not a creche.

And then on bounced the Saviour of Classical Music himself, Lang Lang. His hair was gelled to attention, his head tossed back, his face scrunched in ecstatic agony - it was impossible to watch him without wincing - but his usual exuberance at the keyboard was reined in. Chopin's second piano concerto was all restraint, not a note was hammered. He listened to the orchestra, they listened to him. Questionably, he sacrificed his usual brilliant articulation for a more smudged, impressionistic tone.

There was little that seemed spontaneous, but nothing garish or vulgar either. It wasn't a brilliant performance or one that will stick in my mind forever by any means, but it's further evidence that Lang Lang is at last exploiting his exceptional talent more wisely. Even his encore, a Chopin étude, was thoughtful and delicate. Has Lang Lang grown up?