By RONALD BLUM
Associated Press
The Metropolitan Opera said conductor James Levine will retire at the end of the season after 40 years as music director.
Levine, who turns 73 in June, has been increasingly affected by Parkinson’s disease this season.
Met general manager Peter Gelb said Thursday that Levine will become music director emeritus and a successor music director will be appointed “in the coming months.”
Levine remains scheduled to conduct his remaining performances this season and three revivals next season but is withdrawing from a new staging next year of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier.
Gelb says “there is no conductor in the history of opera who has accomplished what Jim has achieved in his epic career at the Met.”