It’s a case of arts imitating sports: Conductor James Levine will undergo surgery for a torn rotator cuff, an injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the Metropolitan Opera season. And just as when a star ball player lands on the injured list, the pressing question is: Who can step in?

Mr. Levine, who fell on his right shoulder after a concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on March 1, conducts with his right hand, which makes the unrestricted use of his right arm essential.

Replacement conductors – none of whom have been announced yet – will have to be called in to cover everything from the season premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” on March 20 to the last night of the season on May 20. Mr. Levine was scheduled to conduct 24 performances of four operas (“Fidelio, “Don Pasquale,” “Lohengrin,” and “Parsifal”), plus a gala on the closing night honoring the Met’s retiring general manager, Joseph Volpe, and a concert by the Met Orchestra on May 14. He was further slotted to conduct Wagner’s “Die Walkure” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” on the company’s tour of Japan, from June 4 to June 24.

Mr. Levine’s absence presents opportunities for conductors of world-class stature to take the podium. The Met has an elaborate system of cover artists to replace performers who are unable to appear, but finding conductors to pick up Mr. Levine’s baton may be the system’s ultimate challenge.

The operas that he planned to conduct will most certainly go on without him.

The Met almost never cancels a performance or substitutes another opera for one announced, in part for financial reasons. On those rare occasions when an opera has been changed, the Met has offered refunds to patrons on the assumption that they have bought tickets to hear a particular opera. On the other hand, as opera goers are well aware, no refunds are offered in the event of cast changes, even if a patron’s sole reason for buying a ticket was to hear a particular singer.

Complicating matters is the fact that conductors’ schedules are determined long in advance – and even if schedule gaps exist, they may be reluctant to jump in for a few performances without adequate rehearsal. The Met’s current situation, however, is so unusual that conventional rules may not apply. And it leaves plenty of room for speculation on who can take over all or part of Mr. Levine’s work.

The Met’s incoming general manager, Peter Gelb, has already announced future Met debuts of Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Might they be willing to pop in a little early? Mr. Muti left La Scala last year, and if he has the availability, he’d certainly be a contender for “Parsifal.” For buzz purposes, Mr. Barenboim would add some sizzle, and Mr. Salonen, a relatively young man who conducted the score of “The Red Violin,” might freshen up the mix.

David Robertson of the St. Louis Symphony ably took over some of Mr. Levine’s Boston concerts last week; he’s such a versatile conductor that he could be tapped for almost anything he has time for. The musical director of the Santa Fe Opera, Alan Gilbert, just scored a triumph when he stepped in for Bernard Haitink at the Berlin Philharmonic; his facility with last-minute assignments could prove most welcome. Andrew Litton, outgoing conductor of the Dallas Symphony and a graduate of Manhattan’s Fieldston School, has guested with the Met in the past: This might be a chance to get a home town hero back into the rotation.

Christian Thielemann, who will lead the new version of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle at Bayreuth this summer, would be a good pick for “Lohengrin and “Die Walkure.” (Though for the latter, he’d have to give up Bayreuth, which is an unlikely sacrifice.)

Closer to home, the Met’s principal guest conductor, Valery Gergiev, is currently conducting Tchaikovsky’s “Mazeppa” and would be in a good position to conduct the Wagner operas.

Jesus Lopez-Cobos, of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will be at the Met in early April for “Manon”; given his experience with Italian opera, he could tapped for “Don Pasquale.”

One advantage for the Met is Mr. Volpe’s ability to turn crises at the Met into opportunities – or at least occasions to generate publicity. A couple of big names could add extra zip to the season and spur flagging ticket sales, even if a change of opera is necessary. Think of his firing of Kathleen Battle or the way he stretched out the drama of whether Luciano Pavarotti would sing in “Tosca” a few seasons back.

It is ironic that, while Mr. Levine’s health has been a subject of concern for years, only a fluke accident has brought about wholesale cancellations. He tripped on an unknown object while exiting the stage of Boston’s Symphony Hall amid a vociferous ovation following a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Mr. Levine has a tremor in his left arm that has not been medically explained, although he has said that its cause is not Parkinson’s disease. He also has a sciatica condition and in recent years has conducted sitting down. But he has conducted more than 2,000 performances at the Met and canceled only a handful, the company said.

Mr. Levine, who made his Met debut in 1971, has cut back on his commitment to the company in recent years, especially after taking over as music director in Boston in September 2004. But given the concentrated activity he had planned for the end of this season, his Met schedule could be considered light only in comparison with the grueling pace he set for himself there in the 1980s and early 1990s.

If any one conductor can replicate that pace, it will be a feat of operatic proportions.