Per several news sources, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra website, James Levine will have to miss the remainder of the Tanglewood Season (after he just conducted an apparently triumphant performance of Les Troyens a few days ago) due to a cyst in his kidney. Not dangerous, baruch Hashem, but very uncomfortable, so the kidney does need to be removed, and he will take 6 weeks to recover. He should be fine in time for the opening nights of the Met and the BSO in September.
This after the rotator cuff (shoulder) injury that felled him last (?) year. Working in worker's compensation I deal with a lot of rotator cuff tears - up there with lumbosacral (lower back) sprains and meniscal (knee) tears. It can be pretty serious - surgery, many months of physical therapy, and probably at least some loss of use of the arm (I have noticed Levine, admittedly never a "big gesture" conductor, does seem a bit more limited and stiff now). I hope he's OK with his kidney. You only absolutely need one, after all.
Wishing him a refuah shleimah. I don't suppose anyone knows his Hebrew name? Has it ever been made public?
Maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll "bump into" him again while I'm at the Berkshire Choral Festival, but he'll probably be recuperating in New York.
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