Levine Injured, Luisi Steps In, Withdraws from SFS Concerts
James Levine's precarious health suffered a new setback over the weekend, and the Metropolitan Opera music director announced on Tuesday that he is withdrawing from fall performances at the Met.
In the latest production of Rossini's Barber of Seville the young Merolini strut their stuff with a mix of ambition, stress, anxiety, and giddy abandonment.
Unlike the U.S. debt ceiling's rendezvous with destiny, San Francisco Opera's budget situation is in much better shape, thanks in part to union cooperation and willingness to (pardon my French) compromise.
However ambiguous you may feel about the mix of history, hype, (literal) flag-waving, a huge production effort (including a 
