Zubin Mehta cancels Christmas

Zubin Mehta cancels Christmas

News

norman lebrecht

October 19, 2022

The veteran conductor, 86, has withdrawn from La Scala’s Christmas Concert on December 22, along with six performances of Salome in January.

The reason given is poor health.

The Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado will take over at Christmas. Axel Kober and Michael Güttler are the Salome replacements.

UPDATE: A dream sequence that previously appeared in this post now seems to be the work of a different Zubin Mehta.

Comments

  • RW2013 says:

    “thirty two years ago, when I was a very young child”
    Dream on Zubi.

  • J.B. says:

    I’m no psychologist but if someone told me that dream I’d suggest the teacher was representative of parent and low clouds are the lowering of the heights, the distances that children perceive adults at. He sees them as an adult now with a new perspective. But yes, no one asked me…

    • zeno north says:

      I won’t undertake an interpretation. Just came here to say that your last line was brilliant and hilarious. Nothing like a little self-deprecating humour.

  • Una says:

    So lovely to see him conduct at the BBC Proms this year, but he really struggled to get on and off, and months make a difference when 86. Really wish him well.

  • Player says:

    A truism I know but nothing more boring than other people’s dreams!

  • Andrew Powell says:

    Beautifully written.

  • anmarie says:

    What a beautiful mind he has.

  • Gustavo says:

    Is this a poetic farewell to life as such?

    Like in Woody Allen’s “Rifkin’s Festival” –

    Looking back and asking the “big” questions,

    Realizing what really counts.

  • Dave says:

    Very touching… Can you tell me where he posted it?

  • geoffrey dorfman says:

    I think this is a misprint. 32 years ago was perhaps 82 years ago.

  • George says:

    What is the source? It somehow does not sound like him at all and he is not on social media as far as I know…

  • Luke says:

    The performances at La Scala have indeed been changed.

    However the description of the strange dream is from a different Zubin Mehta: https://www.facebook.com/zubintheatre

    …it didn’t sound like something Mehta would say.

  • Musician says:

    This is truly strange. Doesn’t sound or look like Mehta. Where was the posted?

  • clarrieu says:

    So, Norman, your headline should be: “Zubin Mehta cancels Christmas, and an homonym-we-don’t-give-a-crap-about shares a revealing dream…”

  • MR says:

    These are such beautifully subtle thoughts, effortlessly poetic, like the beginning of an original novel. Curious to find out, I just checked and found Zubin Mehta has written an autobiography published thirteen years ago and will order it. I hope he continues to write as well as conduct.
    http://azuremilesrecords.com/amuseumdream.html

  • Greg Bottini says:

    It is a very beautiful and wonderful dream, Maestro Zubin!
    The best dreams are the ones where you meet again with people from your past, and they touch your emotional soul in the dream.
    Of course they are still with you!
    If you happen to read this comment, I wish you many more wonderful dreams like this one, as well as a long life, so that you may dream many many more dreams.

  • Gustavo says:

    “She came up to me, opened her purse…”

    Many interpretation possibilities for Freudians!

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