Levine to miss rest of Met, Boston season

James Levine, music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will miss the rest of the season because of problems with his back.

The Met announced late Sunday Levine is having corrective surgery on his lower back and will miss four performances of Puccini's Tosca and a three-performance revival of Alban Berg's Lulu. He will be replaced by Fabio Luisi.

The 66-year-old music director had already missed several performances with the Met and the orchestra after having surgery last fall on a herniated disc. He returned to his duties Dec. 3.

It marks the latest in a series of health problems Levine has had over the past few years.

In 2006, he tore his rotator cuff when he fell on the stage of Boston's Symphony Hall during ovations and two years later, he had his right kidney removed because of a malignant tumour.

He is still scheduled to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra on July 9 in Mahler's Resurrection symphony at the opening of its summer season in Lennox, Mass., where he is also expected to lead programs for several weeks.

On Sept. 27, he is expected to be back at the Met to conduct a new production of Wagner's Das Rheingold, marking the launch of the 2010/2011 season. It will also be the 40th anniversary of Levine's first appearance with the Met in 1971.