Cancellations have dogged the career of James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera’s music director, in recent years. And they’re not a thing of the past. The Met announced on Friday that Mr. Levine would be dropping out of an important new production of Berg’s “Lulu,” a signature work of his, opening on Nov. 5.
The announcement did not directly address Mr. Levine’s history of health problems, but said that “faced with the demands of rehearsing and performing two large-scale operas simultaneously this fall,” he would concentrate his energies on Wagner’s “Tannhäuser,” which opens on Oct. 8. The overlapping runs of two of Mr. Levine’s favorite operas were to have been a highlight of the Met’s 2015-16 season, which was announced in February.
Lothar Koenigs, who conducted Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at the Met in 2008, will take over the first five performances of “Lulu,” directed by the artist William Kentridge and starring Marlis Petersen. The Met said that the conductor of the final three performances would be announced at a later date.
“Conducting evening performances of ‘Tannhäuser’ while rehearsing ‘Lulu’ in the daytime would be an ambitious undertaking for any maestro,” Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said in a statement, “let alone for someone who only recently returned to full-time conducting.” Since Mr. Levine’s return to the Met podium in the 2013-14 season after two years’ recuperation from injuries, he has missed just a single performance, of Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” this spring.