Stein leaves Boris

Peter Stein, the great German director of stage and opera, whose 12-hour adaptation of The Demons was a highlight of this year’s Lincoln Center Festival, has withdrawn from his scheduled commitment to direct “Boris Godunov” at the Metropolitan Opera in November. Steven Wadsworth, the director who has done “Iphigenie en Tauride” and “Rodelinda” at the Met, and is a part of the Lindemann Young Artists Program, will step in to replace him.

Stein, long a key member of the European avant-garde, has done a kind of volte-face in the last couple of decades toward more traditionally-minded productions (his 21-hour staging of Goethe’s entire “Faust,” Parts I and II, among them). His opera work has included Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera, with Thomas Hampson. This "Boris," with the bass Rene Pape, would have been his Metropolitan Opera debut.