Natalie Dessay pulls out of next month’s Manon performances at La Scala “for health reasons” — Netrebko takes over

Nat­alie Des­say was forced to can­cel, even mid-performance, per­form­ances of La Travi­ata at the Met­ro­pol­itan Opera last month, where she was replaced by sop­rano Hei-Kyung Hong. The con­ductor was Fabio Luisi, the Italian maes­tro heav­ily tipped to take over from the ail­ing James Lev­ine.

Now at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala she has with­drawn from per­form­ances of Manon which she was due to sing in a month’s time. Once again the con­ductor was Luisi. La Scala cites “health reas­ons” for the cancellation.

The man­age­ment at La Scala have obvi­ously been hard at it on the phone, and have suc­ceeded in secur­ing Anna Net­rebko for the open­ing performances.

When the 47-year-old Des­say with­drew from the Met per­form­ances it was stated that she was suf­fer­ing from a cold.