Conductor Zubin Mehta, 86, has cancelled his upcoming engagements at La Scala in Milan for health reasons. Mehta was scheduled to take the podium on Dec. 22 for the Christmas Concert and for six performances of the Strauss opera Salome in January.
Mehta will be replaced by Pablo Heras-Casado, for the Christmas Concert, while Salome will be split up between Axel Kober, music director of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Michael Güttler, principal conductor of the Finnish National Opera.