Side effects of the treatment Franz Welser-Möst is following to treat the cancer he has been battling for two years force him to give up conducting The Magic Flute at the Vienna Staatsoper at the end of the month. The German maestro will be replaced by Bertrand de Billy.
« We prepared this new production with Franz down to the smallest detail, with great care and over a long period of time. I know how painful it is for him not to be able to implement this project himself. The Staatsoper team feels the same way. We all wish him a speedy and lasting recovery.”. It is with this message that Bogdan Roscic, the director of the Vienna State Opera, announced the resignation of Franz Welser-Möst from conducting Mozart’s The Magic Flute from January 27.
According to the press release from the Austrian institution “ After successful immunotherapy, unexpected side effects occurred, making its involvement impossible”. Heavy treatment which had already forced Franz Welser-Möst, 64, to withdraw last fall from several concerts at the head of the Cleveland Opera of which he has been the musical director for 23 years.
Franz Welser-Möst is expected to return to the stage in March in Cleveland
To replace him on the stageHaus am Ringduring the first 7 performances of Mozart’s masterpiece (until February 10) directed by Barbora Horáková, those responsible for the Wiener Staatsoper called on Bertrand de Billy.
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During this series, the Franco-Swiss conductor, recently named honorary member of the Viennese institution, will notably conduct Julian Prégardien (Tamino) and Ludwig Mittelhammer (Papageno) and, for the first time in Vienna, the Spanish soprano Serena Saénz as the Queen of the Night. For the 4 performances scheduled from April 25 to May 5, as planned, Hungarian maestro Ádám Fischer will be at the Staatsoper podium.
According to his diary, updated on his website, Franz Welser-Möst should not resume the baton in public before next March. It will be in Cleveland for a series of concerts devoted to works by Maurice Ravel and Pyotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky with South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho.
Philippe Gault
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