Daniel Barenboim leaves the Staatsoper due to a serious illness: "My health has deteriorated considerably"

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The 80-year-old pianist and conductor

leaving the General Music Directorate of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden for health reasons.

In a letter from Berlin's Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer, the musician explains that "unfortunately,

. I can no longer deliver the performance that is rightly required of a general director of music. For this reason, I ask for your understanding for the fact that I am leaving this position on January 31, 2023."

Barenboim's decision was an announced chronicle.

In February, he had to undergo spinal surgery that forced him to rest for several months.

In October he reported that he had also been diagnosed with a "serious neurological disease."

Sources close to the musician refer to it as a type of

.

Barenboim's health problems had an impact on the programming of the theater that he has directed for more than three decades.

The concert announced by the Staatsoper on the occasion of his

and in which he was going to sit at the piano, was

.

Barenboim had already had to give up directing the new production of Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen".

Christian Thielemann and Thomas Guggeis replaced him on the podium.

Thielemann also filled in for Barenboim during the Asian tour with the Staatskapelle.

For the senator for Culture, "Daniel Barenboim has made the right decision."

The decision, he said, brings to the fore the welfare of the Staatsoper and the Staatskapelle.

"All of this deserves the greatest respect."

Barenboim has waited until the last moment to make

.

In December he returned to the Staatsoper to conduct Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Now it is known that it was his last concert as music director of the state opera.

Barenboim's resignation, which is how the Staasoper mayor describes the musician's resignation, will be a great loss for the theater and for the city.

"

For more than 30 years, he has brought his inexhaustible energy to this house and to its Staatskapelle Berlin as an artistic personality with worldwide charisma", declared the mayor of the coliseum

For Matthias Schulz, the step taken by Barenboim in the spirit of the institution deserves great respect.

"One can only imagine how difficult this step must have been for Daniel Barenboim, whom we all wish the best in his recovery," said the mayor, noting that Barenboim "will forever be associated with this house and the Berlin Staatskapelle."

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