Franz Welser-Möst Taking Over Zubin Mehta's 'Der Rosenkavalier' at Salzburg

Suffice it to say that Q4 of 2013 hasn't been too kind to, quote, "one of the greatest global living Indians."

For starters, Zubin Mehta made a mess of things with Bavaria in Kashmir. (Why there wasn't more of an outcry from the Bayerisches Staatsorchester back in Munich, at least feigning diplomatic disgust, is beyond me.)

And now, there's another Teuton, Maestro Franz Welser-Möst, caught in the middle of Mehta's mire in Salzburg.

The press release notes that Mehta "is extraordinarily sorry that an impending operation has forced him to withdraw from conducting Der Rosenkavalier in the summer of 2014," an event he (if not so much Alexander Pereira) "had been looking forward to greatly."

For their part, the Salzburg Festival remains "delighted that Franz Welser-Möst, general music director of the Vienna State Opera and music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, has spontaneously declared his willingness to conduct this new production with the Vienna Philharmonic."

Said new production of the Strauss will be directed by Harry Kupfer. Apropos, here's a certain scene from his and Barenboim's Ring, back in '92. At Bayreuth, no less.

Never one to let the last word escape him, Salzburg's AD did issue his own statement. “Der Rosenkavalier is a work very dear to Franz Welser-Möst’s heart," Pereira said. "I feel that it is a happy fate that this Rosenkavalier will be entrusted to him."

But of course you do, Alex.