Renee Fleming has withdrawn from the Verbier Festival – boy, don’t you feel for those administrators this week!   Ms. Fleming’s absence is due to inflamed sinuses – however buried in the article is a gem – see below.

In Fleming’s absence, colleagues have been ready to step into the breach — though the program has had to be rearranged. Bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, who is already at the festival, will sing half a dozen Schubert lieder accompanied by Justus Zeyen at the piano, next violinist Radoslaw Szulc, cellist Mischa Maisky and pianist Lang Lang will play the Mendelssohn Trio No. 1. The concert will still finish up with the Mozart Requiem, with soloists Anne Sofie von Otter, Kenneth Tarver and René Pape joined by soprano Barbara Bonney, who is returning to the concert stage after an absence of nearly a year.

PlaybillArts: News: Renée Fleming Withdraws from July 22 Verbier Festival Concert.