No one was more surprised than Daniel Barenboim himself at the impromptu homecoming to Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as a last-minute sub just two weeks after he formally stepped down as the Berlin's State Opera's music director after 30 years.
A towering figure in classical music, the 80-year-old conductor and pianist got a call at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday with an unexpected invitation to conduct three Mozart concerts, after Daniel Harding canceled for family reasons. By Wednesday, Barenboim — who left his Berlin post for health reasons — was running rehearsals at La Scala, a theater where he worked for nearly a decade as chief visiting conductor before becoming its musical director.
