Breaking: UK conductor is resuscitated on stage after fainting in concert

Breaking: UK conductor is resuscitated on stage after fainting in concert

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norman lebrecht

January 12, 2020

The London-based American conductor Robert Ziegler collapsed last night while leading the Luxembourg Philharmonic in a ciné-concerts of Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver.

An ambulance was called and the conductor received heart massage and other emergency interventions on stage before being rushed to hospital in Luxembourg where his condition is said to be stable.

This was Ziegler’s first appearance in Luxembourg. He works regularly in studio with the LSO and LPO and in concert with the RPO and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

UPDATE: We’v e received this encouraging word from his wife, Nicky Webb: ‘Robert (to whom I am married) fainted on stage. That’s all. The doctor in the house started CPR though when he got to hospital it was confirmed his heart was just fine and he’d simply fainted, probably due to standing for so long during the cues he wasn’t conducting coupled with low blood pressure.’

Comments

  • Nicky says:

    Please note this is a non-story. Robert (to whom I am married) fainted on stage. That’s all. The doctor in the house started CPR though when he got to hospital it was confirmed his heart was just fine and he’d simply fainted, probably due to standing for so long during the cues he wasn’t conducting coupled with low blood pressure.

  • All is well. Sadly just had some issues with Adrenalin and lack of dinner. The good (or bad) thing about conducting is that there’s ALWAYS a Doctor in the House. Or 3, in this case. Thanks for all of your attention. Just fine now.

  • Mock Mahler says:

    It’s good to hear that he’s OK. For me there remains bad news: ‘Taxi Driver’ is apparently now available for the “movie with orchestra” fad. I mean, ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Harry Potter’ are one thing, but really. . . .

    • Phillip Ayling says:

      Though I have no sense of the experience in a live performance setting, Bernard Herrmann’s score for Taxi Driver is brilliant, in my opinion.

      He died before Post Production was finished and never got to see the completed film.

      Besides Herrmann’s unique use of dissonance and orchestration to convey emotion, this score contains absolutely brilliant use of the Alto Saxophone in an orchestral context.

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