The 80-year-old conductor suffers from a neurological disorder that limits his ability to work
Argentinian conductor Daniel Barenboim, who also holds Spanish, Israeli and Palestinian passports, announced on Friday that he would step down as general musical director of Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden due to health problems. “Unfortunately, my health has clearly deteriorated over the past year. I can no longer provide the performance expected of a music general director,” said 80-year-old Barenboim in a statement in the German capital. “For this reason, I ask for your understanding for my decision to end this activity on January 31. “, said the maestro who has been in charge of the historical opera in the German capital since 1992. Barenboim revealed that he has requested the culture senator of the city – state of Berlin, Klaus Lederer, the termination of his contract as of that date.
“Of course, as long as I am closely associated with music, I am willing to act as a conductor in the future, including at the Staatskapelle in Berlin,” he stressed in his note. The prestigious musical maestro had already announced last October that he would have to suspend some of his performances in the coming months. Among them was a concert that the Staatsoper was to celebrate last November at the Berliner Philharmoniker on the occasion of his birthday and in which he was to perform as a soloist at the piano. He then also resigned to direct a new staging of Richard Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelungs” at the Baroque musical theater in the German capital and was replaced by Christian Thielemann and Thomas Guggeis.
Despite everything, he took over last Saturday to conduct Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on the occasion of the New Year celebrations in Berlin. Barenboim suffers from a serious progressive neurological disease that reduces his ability to move. The Berlin senator for culture, for his part in a note, was convinced that “Daniel Barenboim has made the right decision” and emphasized that he is honored to put the interests of the Staatsoper and the Staatskapelle orchestra above his own. “All of that deserves a lot of respect,” Lederer said.
Daniel Barenboim, considered one of the most outstanding contemporary conductors, was born in 1942 in the city of Buenos Aires and in 1992 was appointed general music director of the Berlin Staatsoper.
Source: La Verdad
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