Classical music: NEWS FLASH – Recovering James Levine will return to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera next season.

By Jacob Stockinger

The timing of the announcement couldn’t have been better, given that today, Saturday, Oct. 13, marked the return of the “Live From the Met in HD” satellite broadcasts with Anna Netrebko in Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love.”

And this story needs no commentary from me except to say that classical music fans and opera fans all over the world will be overjoyed to hear that long-time Met conductor James Levine (seen below in a photo by Damon Winter for The New York Times), long plagued by major and serious health problems, will return to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera next season. Furthermore, the recuperating Levine is being extremely open and candid about overcoming his illnesses and health challenges, which he calls “miraculous.”

Special accommodations are being made to the Met’s for Levine, who usually conducts sitting down (below, in a 2111 photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times) but who must now get around in a motorized wheelchair. But you can read the stories below for those and other details.

Here is a link to a Page One story in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/arts/music/james-levine-to-return-to-conducting-in-2013.html?pagewanted=all

Here is a link to another story by the Associated Press:

http://news.yahoo.com/met-operas-james-levine-return-may-spinal-injury-233313878–sector.html

You could even leave a Message for the Maestro in the COMMENT section of this blog.

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Posted in Classical music
Tags: Anna Netrebko, Associated Press, Carnegie Hall, Damon Winter, James Levine, L'elisir d'amore, Levine, Metropolitan Opera, New York Times