Daniel Barenboim will continue to take a break and will not conduct for the next few months. “My health,” writes the conductor, who celebrates his 80th birthday on November 15, “has deteriorated in recent months and I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological disease.” The illness has already forced him to cancel the four-part Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, which has just come out as a new production at the Berlin State Opera, and which was also supposed to be a birthday “Ring” for him. So now Barenboim is going down even further, but isn’t giving up just yet (literally, he’s said via social media that he’ll be “retiring from some of my performances, particularly conducting”). His followers around the world hope that he will conduct again. However, Barenboim’s gentle course fueled speculation about who could succeed him at the Berlin State Opera, where he has been music director for a good 30 years. Large parts of the audience seem to agree: their favorite is Christian Thielemann, who stepped in in the Berlin “Ring” and has so far achieved sound miracles in the first two parts. Along with Barenboim and Kirill Petrenko, he is the best Wagner conductor in the world.
Daniel Barenboim still ill – culture
