I miei cieli! Dio mio!!! What is going on here? I adore opera. But, James Levine is a conductor, not a god. With the aid of the Met’s administration and Board, Levine created his image as a deity (including insisting he be called le-VINE) and enjoyed the publicity. His performance the past 4 decades vied with those of famous prima donnas who graced the stage of the Met. He had some successes, but is highly overrated. Levine mounted more than his share of boring productions with wailing sopranos, singers who cannot “handle Handel” and an orchestra that is not always stellar. Opera, properly staged and conducted, is exciting, dramatic and even hilariously funny. If one thinks of who has creatively staged opera, Glyndebourne, Glimmerglass and the Lyric are some that come to mind, but not Levine and the Met. The Met has been in financial difficulties for some years. Perhaps Levine is part of the problem. The Met would do well to focus fund raising efforts on educating the public and donors about the artistry, creativity and glorious musicality of opera, and making opera more accessible: not creating a deity to be worshipped by New Yorkers. Recent efforts in this direction, in the vitual absence of Levine, should be continued. As to having “his career upended”, Levine has himself to blame. He was paid $1.8 million last year to conduct 4 Met productions. That’s hardly a career upended. Levine has been allowed to get away with unacceptable behavior for decades. He is not the victim.
26
The Met administration and board knew and enabled Levine sexual misconduct for years. (I myself witnessed the maestro with very young men on three occasions.) There obviously needs to be a full accounting and some heads, beginning with Volpe’s, probably need to roll.
But the Metropolitan Opera is a vital and necessary cultural institution made up of hundreds of dedicated employees and performers. That institution and those jobs shouldn’t suffer for the sins, professional or moral, of those people in charge who countenanced Levine’s abuse of powerless young men. Unhappily, I’m afraid both will.
17
The scold-bots are out in force. Their blue noses are distorting the purple color scheme I have selected in my browser. As to the very reasonable claim that this entire issue is not about sex but about power, I am tempted to counter that nobody ever has to do anything. It occurs to me, however, that such a counter-claim would infer that I believe in Free Will, which I do not. Be that as it may.
The only reasonable explanation or justification for this pile-on of traditional Righteousness -- a null concept, really -- is that sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If we pile it onto Donald Trump, then apparently we were required also to pile it onto Al Franken and now James Levine -- although the accusations against Franken were nowhere near being in the lame league as those alleged of Levine.
I would aver that I detest Trump because he is Trump. He is a con-artist, and worse yet a stupid and ignorant lout. No class, no pass. Nonetheless, he provides ample opportunities within prescribed avenues whereby he facilitates his own undoing.
As for James Levine, I will continue to treasure my DVDs of the complete Ring Cycle which he conducted at the Metropolitan Opera some years ago. The copyright date on those items is 1990. Levine was in top form. The cast included Hildegard Behrens as Brunhilde, James Morris as Wotan, Siegfried Jerusalem as Loge in Das Rheingold and as Siegfried in the later works, and Jessye Norman as Sieglinde in Die Walkure.
7
Too bad NYC Ballet didn't have the same courage that the Met did. I will never go to NYC ballet again.
5
I will go to the NYC Ballet if they do the Angelin Preljocaj production of Le Sacre du Printemps.
1
Molly,
Abuse of power and intimidation is the 'general' form of behavior. It is exercised through various means. Parents may abuse the children they profess to love. Officials abuse their status when they coerce bribes. Levine used sex for coercion. But why was sex coercive? That is the point addressed in the letter.
WP
I have been an opera lover and Met patron for some 30 years. Levine's pedophilia was a well-known rumor, whispered among my opera-going friends though I traveled well outside the inner circles of the Met strongest devotees. Levine built the Met orchestra into what is the best orchestra in the United States among his other accomplishments. Like the well-worn myth of the drunken novelist, now mostly dismissed, I think it might be illuminating to examine why these exceptionally talented people have sexual appetites that ultimately consume themselves as well their unfortunate victims.
9
None of this is a surprise. It would not even be particularly interesting except for the horror and the grief which attend the recitation of the histories. I feel complicit - not in Mr. Levine's actions nor those of his management, but in acts I witnessed at the place I once worked, which I did not report. I thought no one would listen, or care. (Not quite true, but close.) Because that's the way things were. Because "everyone" knew and no one did anything. Because the perp, confronted, said, "You can't touch me, I'm too powerful," and I did not persist. I am part of the disgrace, and it will be difficult working through how I arrived at that point; as it must be for members of the Board, and for Mr. Levine, if they choose to reflect on their stories. How I got there / here, what I can do to change. Painful as these stories are, I thank every speaker for helping to bring about change.
12
News alert: The great people of the City Boston never liked him.
If accounts are true, he raped a 17-year-old fan. 17-year-olds can't legally consent.
~sigh~ So many brilliant artists. So many abusers.
6
Lest the world of classical music cuts its own pervs some slack:
I am a lifelong classical music/opera fan. This writer give no quarter to Levine or any other artist who preys on the vulnerable. JL's assaults over the years, especially other performers trying to get their own careers started, is nothing less than what non-musicians have done. It is a blatant use of power for sex and it can destroy people who were victimized by such behavior,
In my tender years as a piano student, my teacher, a well known concert pianist, was gay. Not once in 10 years of study with him, did he ever get out of line. He was completely proper all the time.
That members of the Met, and especially Gelb, protected Levine all this time is unforgivable. He needs to be gone. Damn his wealth and the wealth of anyone else on that board who protected Levine.
22
Perhaps public perceptions have changed in recent years. I recently saw the Met's production of Madame Butterfly----the story of a US military officer who cons a naive fifteen year old girl into a relationship where he impregnates and then abandons her. No one suggests the officer should be charged with a crime or even fired from his job. It is a beautiful opera. We all applauded at the end.
There is no question that pubic perceptions on sexual abuse have changed in recent years. I in no way suggest that the actions Levine is accused of are acceptable, and perhaps our society will eventually enact better laws to reflect our changing mores. (We did eventually get rid of slavery.) But I will continue to enjoy listening to live performances by the great orchestra Levine created and recordings of Levine conducting many great works ---including great operas of questionable contemporary moral integrity, like Madame Butterfly.
9
I am truly dumbstruck by your comment. Madame Butterfly is indeed a beautiful opera, but no one ever has considered the actions of Pinkerton as anything other than reprehensible. In fact, he is widely considered one of the most loathsome characters in the operatic repertoire. The opera itself in no way condones Pinkerton's behavior so your remarks about "questionable contemporary moral integrity" are totally baseless. Just because a work of art portrays bad behavior doesn't mean it's condoning it or guilty of it. It's a little like questioning the moral integrity of The Sound of Music because there are Nazis in it. And no matter how you slice it the idea that Madame Butterfly in any way recontextualizes Levine's offenses is absurd.
35
jim, I think you're basically right, and there is much in the opera that conveys Pinkerson's loathsomeness: the character Sharpless is a voice of reason and morality, who cautions Pinkerton against what he is about to do, but Pinkerton dismisses the warnings, and at the end Sharpless tells Pinkerton I told you so. (Funny thing, though: when I was a kid, I didn't get that Pinkerton was a despicable character, and I wonder whether that's because much of the music, being so beautiful, fails to underscore it. The big duet that ends Act I is called the "love duet," but how is that consistent with Pinkerton's loathsomeness?)
6
The latest example of how the "progressive" fascists are ruining America. Just like their cousin, Trump. Sex is sex, and who's really ready to throw the first stone there? Well, in stoning selected malefactors, the me-tooers are diminishing culture at all levels, depriving us of fine gifts like Jimmy's extraordinary musicianship. Why should that be? If there's a crime, deal with it. The rest is just accusation and punishment without due process. We seem to be heading back into an era of Victorian-like prudery where sex becomes dirty and nasty and anyone who engages in it becomes a scapegoat. What a tragedy and a breeding ground for hypocrisy.
12
Fascists are never progressive.
8
Allan.
"Progressive fascists are ruining America?" That sounds to me that you are quite judgmental. Yet you seem incensed with judgmental responses to accusation of sex abuse. Seems only the critics you do not like are "progressive fascists", for the shameless that are dubbed talented their behavior is excused.
WP
4
What he did was illegal.
11
James Levine was an open gay secret for years and a very sad one. I remember him at Rounds, an "upscale" gay hustler bar many times in the early 1980's and he was a nasty piece of work. I doubt he was capable of real relationships as he was a predator and an unpopular "john" skating by on his celebrity. A lonely victim of our homophobia but an abuser and user nonetheless A musical genius no doubt but a sad and damaged person who hurt many sensitive young men. Really not to be forgiven.
52
I thought the picture was of "Curly" from the Three Stooges
8
Sorry, just now I meant to type "still don't want to hear the truth," missed a word there.
1
Wagner was viciously anti-Semitic. Karajan was a Nazi, Schwarzkopf too. Tchaikovsky is now commonly believed to have committed suicide over his homosexuality. Furtwangler and Strauss stayed in Germany under Hitler. Mahler changed his Jewish religion for a job. To all of this, SO WHAT? Wagner was almost certainly the greatest opera composer that ever lived, and his works permeate the world's operatic repertoires. Karajan was arguably the greatest conductor of the period 1950-1980 and his near-1,000 recordings permeate the classical record industry. Furtwangler is worshipped now, and was Toscanini's only real rival in his own time. Mahler was one of the great opera conductors and has become the popular symphonist of out time. Schwarzkopf ended up a Dame Commander of the British Empire! Tchaikovsky's immense popularity hasn't suffered one bit over his homosexuality or suicide. Levine was arguably the greatest full-time opera conductor of the past 50 years, and surely the most important one in the way that he revitalized the Met - repertoire, orchestra, chorus, general musical standards, etc. Do you think that 50 or 80 years down the line, anyone will much care about his sexual problems, other than as not much more than a footnote to his tremendous career? Not any more than they care about Wagner's anti=Semitism (except as subject for between-acts conversation, or Mahler's betrayal of religion he didn't much believe in any way in order to lead the Vienna Hofoper.
16
The histories of the artists you mention contain records of their achievements and their faults. Obviously, since you are able to rattle the faults off. If 50 or 80 years from now people still remember James Levine they will remember this part of his story too, along with his music. How they feel about it and whether or not they choose to ignore the faults is their own decision, just as listening to Wagner or buying a Ford is a personal decision
.
It would seem that the Met has little option but to fire him. They conducted an investigation of sorts which somehow miraculously cleared the management and board. Supposedly something like 70 interviews were conducted and their was evidence that led to the firing, which is the right of the company. As it is is, the possibility is there that the Met and its board will be facing some lawsuits. To continue employing Levine after the complaints about his conduct would make it even more likely that the Met would be sued for failure to provide a safe work environment.
The Met was never just James Levine. When people listen to those records 50 years from now they are not going to be watching Levine play air guitar. The Met is a company where everyone's welfare should be respected and protected.
8
If Wagner were alive today and in a position to inflict his bigotry on others we would most certainly care about it. And there were more than a few of us who actually did care about Karajan's past throughout his career and wanted nothing to do with his work, however skillful.
9
You think Wagner's work and memory are not tainted by their connection with Nazi Germany? I doubt anyone who thinks of him is unaware of that connection or its dark shadow over his name, and it will continue to be so long after you and I are gone from this earth.
11
To many of the commenters here: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
9
There is sin and there is crime. He committed a crime. Most human beings never have and never will.
22
Oh, let's be plain. Let those who have not abused their power over youths to satisfy their own ugly sexual appetites cast the first stone--not that this man is being stoned, but held to account, yes. As he should be, and as you or I, if we did this to young people, should be as well. Your compassion might spare a moment or two for them, if there's any but for the perpetrator of these abuses.
9
So, then, on reason to intervene when someone is using a position of power to sexually abuse and harass others? Interesting application of this scriptural reference - which you've stripped of its context, of course.
4
This was so NOT a secret for decades. God.
18
Everybody knew back in the 80's that Levine was a sexual predator and went after young men and boys. I had friends in the orchestra pit who talked about his predilections with great disgust, but no one would do anything about it. The "rumors" then were even more sordid, and included very young boys, as well as payoffs. Who knows? But the Met should be utterly ashamed of itself for allowing this to continue. We have a very long way to go, it seems, and the Oval Office, frankly, is no exception.
37
I doubt that it's intentional but this article exemplifies what's wrong with so much press coverage of sexual abuse and harassment.
"Mr. Levine, 74, has become the highest-profile figure in classical music to have his career upended during the national reckoning over sexual misconduct."
He didn't have something done to him like "have his career upended" implies.
I doubt that anyone would say 'that accountant Levine, who embezzled millions from his employer, had his career upended during this national reckoning over stealing money from your jobs.' But with sexual assault the language is framed in ways that make the abuser a victim as well. The same is done with race.
For sure Levine's career was upended. And that's all his fault. Everything that was done to have his career upended can be attributed to Levine and nothing or no one else. He isn't a causality of a moment or movement it during a moment or movement. He didn't get caught up in a current or riptide. Nothing happened to him. He did the things. And he did the things by being a criminal.
He's a criminal during this national reckoning like he was before this national reckoning. Connecting that to this national reckoning seems to somehow diminish or whitewash that.
41
In the USA doesn't someone have be tried and convicted of a crime to be a criminal?
9
If the US or state government fail to convict a criminal, he is not subject to fines and punishments.
But he still may be a "criminal" in the sense that it is widely known he did crimes. We the public, or his employers, cannot jail or fine him, but we can say he should be fired and censured.
5
No, Anne, criminals in the US are people who commit crimes. It's that way in any place. People tried and convicted are convicted criminals. But a rapist is a person who commits rape; a murderer a person who commits murder. People who harm others do harm them, no matter if anyone even ever knows or not. When you commit criminal acts, you become a criminal. Surely that's patent, even in these strange days.
7
“any claims or rumors that members of the Met’s management or its board of directors engaged in a cover-up of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated.” a quote of Robert Cleary. Are we all fools?
I like many, many others have heard rumors about Levine's personal life over the years. Does anyone really believe that no members of the Met's management or board ever heard these rumors? If they did hear them, did failing to take any action to confirm or deny these rumors not constitute a coverup? Shouldn't they also be fired?
I
16
I think Levine's and many other predators' actions are worthy of punishment. But I hesitate to so easily damn those who heard rumors, or even heard first-hand accounts of these trespasses, and failed to act boldly. Many of the predators we're talking about are powerful people who could end careers and ruin lives. Some of them were predatory towards some people, but charming, helpful, friendly and magnanimous to others. It's an immensely difficult and dangerous thing to be a whistle blower, particularly against someone who may have helped you in your life, or who has the power to destroy it. It's not fair to expect everyone to be a super-courageous hero.
3
RGT-are you referring to Levine or members of the Met Board and management?
1
The Met has ill-served both Levine's victims and Levine himself.
6
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
3
The "victims" of sexual abuse in the workplace also includes people who were scared away from what might have been great jobs leading to great careers.
12
I've played viola since I was nine. I'm down with classical music for sure but I've never cared about Levine anymore than he's cared about me. He didn't create the genre. Classical music thrived just fine before him and will after him. At some point we've gotta stop making deities out of people no matter how talented we tell ourselves that they are.
We've gotta stop dismissing their crimes because we decided that their talent brings in donors that somehow no one else can.
I quit music altogether for awhile because I thought my junior high band director was a pedophile. Years later he was arrested for possession of child pornography. If a twelve year old could see it the adult sophisticates at the Met and throughout Levine's career no doubt did to.
Yeah he was a money maker but I wonder how many deep pockets would've but chose not to direct their philanthropy to the Met because they had serious misgivings about Levine. Maybe he would've been gone long ago if the board asked how much money the Met isn’t receiving because of screaming whispers about Levine instead of looking at how much money he made him.
17
I just can't, in good conscience, support someone who wore his hair like that for decades. Is there no decency?
19
The Met’s purpose, and that of everyone involved, is to serve the music. If your conductor is tainted by criminal controversy, he cannot adequately serve the music. Levine lost this privilege twice because of his s dual assaults and later because of his illness. The Met betrayed everyone in their organization and their public by allowing Levine to remain.
11
I hope the Times is doing some internal investigating and soul searching of its own as to why it chose not to pursue these multiple allegations. I'm highly doubtful that these very insider-savvy, knowing reporters bought the Met's and Levine's denials.
7
The issue here is framed as one of sexual abuse and the inaction of the Met. For what it's worth, "sexual abuse" is characterized thus on Wikipedia: "Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is usually undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another."
The four accusers are all reported to characterize what happened as abuse. Brown's account begins when he was 17, which is above the age of consent in Michigan. What the article says is that "Mr. Levine had masturbated him and asked him to reciprocate," with the implication that he did reciprocate. Did he consent or not? If this behavior was undesired on that occasion, why did he participate at all?
Mr. Ifsich was 20. Mr. Pai was 16, which was the age of consent in Illinois at the time. According to another Times article, Mr. Pai "would visit Mr. Levine at the Deer Path Inn, a hotel near Ravinia," and said, “this pattern repeated itself hundreds of times.”
I am not saying that James Levine's behavior is not creepy or objectionable. But does it qualify as "abuse"? What exactly shows that these men were not willing participants in the behavior, and of an age such that it was legal?
What should the Met have done? It is not the police. If it was only after three decades that Mr. Pai "realize[d] how destructive those encounters had been," was the Met supposed to have known that those events in 1986 were undesired, and fired Levine?
9
Read the Boston Globe article. The teens were subject to emotional, sexual and even physical abuse by Levine. Their futures depended on obeisance to him.
10
From the Boston Globe: "Lestock, who said he was a 17-year-old cello student when he first had sexual contact with Levine, said the conductor once turned physically abusive.... “He asked me to take my clothes off and he started pinching me,” said Lestock...."
"In interviews with the Globe, members of the group said Levine had exerted immense control over them, dictating many aspects of their lives and coercing them into individual and group sex acts."
What has been reported sounds to me like sexual harassment, not sexual abuse or molestation. Whatever happened to free agency and the capacity simply to say no or not to participate?
It may be true that it could make a difference to these men's futures whether they complied, but that doesn't mean they were forced. Not everyone who makes it in the classical music world owes it to James Levine. An advertising executive's future may depend on his wining and dining clients or going to sports events with them, but that doesn't mean he doesn't do so willingly.
I can understand how a 17-year-old might fall under the sway of a charismatic individual. Plausibly, these men wanted to be part of Levine's world. So yes, he exerted immense control over them and told them to do a lot of things, but, if they really didn't want to do it, would it have been impossible to say, "Come on, this is ridiculous, I'm not going to put on this stupid blindfold and masturbate anybody"?
1
Perhaps a look back at Leonard Bernstein's activities would be appropriate.
5
Why? Not every famous gay or bisexual conductor has to be a vicious predator...
6
I note with gratitude that after careful investigation over four decades both The New York Times and Met management has taken action. Bravo, indeed.
8
It has taken this happening to one of the greatest humans of our time to cause me to finally speak out. This is wrong. Horribly, deeply, profoundly wrong. To destroy a person, to convict him or her without due process. Without a trial by jury of his or her peers is to risk destroying the very bedrock on which our civilization rests. No matter what this person may or may not have done it is far worse to impose vigilante, mob rule justice upon him. Far worse than anything a person could possibly have done.
Aeschylus said it very eloquently in the 'Orestia' written some twenty-five hundred years ago. Without the rule of law there is only an endless cycle of retribution and vengeance. Yet the destruction of so many lives by this mob justice of our supposedly enlightened time simply roles on.
And the sanctimonious liberals who think this is some kind of good idea just keep promoting or at least condoning actions that are morally equivalent to lynching.
7
First let me say I am not gay and do not know anyone who is gay and I have no opinion either for or against them.
What they do has not made my life any different so I have no reason to judge them.
Let me also say I have never understood why anyone would like Opera.
I like some of the music but except for Gilbert and Sullivan I have never had the patients or the inclination to actually waste my money to see one
so given this I have no reason to support Levine because of my admiration
for the work he has accomplished.
Given even if he did what this article reports that people are claiming he did I do not see why there is a problem with how James Levine behaved.
He did not rape these boys.
What he did does not seem to be morally or legally wrong.
James Levine made the Met what it is.
They do not have the right to judge him.
It is clear that they are doing it because they are scared that the Me Too people will demonstrate against them and they want to be politically correct.
James Levine is in bad health and can not defend himself from these accusations as factually he probably did have sex with these boys but did not abuse them.
I am Jewish and I understand Wagner was a anti Semite but like Barenboim
I would not be against anyone who would want to either perform it or listen to it.
We should not forget what Levine did to make this world a better place to live in.
9
We need to stop attacking the Met and concentrate on providing more support to those that were adversely and cruelly affected by Levine's deplorable actions.
10
Where was the Met Board over the decades in all of this? Ultimately, it is the board's responsibility to monitor an organization and to put in place policies and procedures that deal with such problems. As with most cultural organizations, the only qualification for board membership begins and ends with his/her wallet. Serving on such a board brings prestige to its members, and most think board service begins and ends with that financial contribution. The press should examine the people on these boards and expose the hollow governance structures.
10
On the periphery of the classical music world I had heard about this 15 years ago; part of that telling was that the Met provided a minder to keep JL from straying. Rumor, of course, but its quite believable that the Met was aware of the situation.
7
Without any particular interest in Mr. Levine, the Met, or opera, I was getting an education at a decent college, with a major in music, and even I heard rumors about this, and that was 30 years ago. As so often, where there was smoke there turned out to be fire. He was simply too powerful to be called out on this. Among those culpable are his fanatical fans, many of whom still want to hear the truth.
7
Not rumor, his minder was his artist brother Tom at work and Sue Thompson, his flat mate at night. That system was put in place as part of the terms to his hiring by the BSO.
4
Mr. Levine's activities were well known during the 1990's and discussed on multiple occasions by board members and others who worked at the MET, or with the MET at Mrs. Humphrey's dinners. I was witness to them. Proskauer Rose has been "of counsel" to the MET for many years and perhaps was not the best choice to do a real investigation. They also realize the board has potential liability and also donations will also begin to dry up. At this time, the best possible outcome would be the removal of Peter Gelb who sat on information after he was contacted by the police. He's not the MET's future any longer and to change the officers of the board. The problem is, some of those officers are the MET's greatest patrons and they can ill afford to lose their donations. It's a ridiculous catch-22 with far more drama off the stage than on these days.
22
where is volpe in all of this? he was levine's boss during most of his Met career and seems to be avoiding any potential responsibility for his Company's actions during those many years. there is something rather sick about waiting until he was old, infirmed, and on his way out to suddenly discover what much of the world seemed to already know.
15
Wow! Opera rarely gets so many comments! More like The Met's dwindling audiences!!!
5
I saw the Met's 2016-17 season production of Richard Strauss's "Salome" four times, and I have the scanned tickets to prove it.
4
Just abominable. The Met doesn't release the report. How Catholic. How this-guy-is-responsible-but-we're-not. What kind of diocese shuffle is this!!? This is despicable. Transparency is demanded. This PR move by the Met is odious to the core. Announce the new Director who "miraculously agreed to come on board two years early" then announce the disgraceful actions by the previous actors. Nope. NO DICE. Come clean now. My patron money, ticket sales, guild membership are gone if you do not make this right.
10
The NY Times which prides itself on its critics and standard of artistic merit blew this one a long time ago on Maestro Levine. Yes,artists are different than us but sexual abuse or mind control of the young is not to be tolerated at any age.The Met deserves to lose some support as a result of a flawed past in upholding the reputation of its cherished long time music conductor. He did lots of good over many decades there but he is not immune from his flaws. Too bad the Times ignores its own troubled Arts coverage history and some of its own Editors who did not ask enough questions.
10
I believe that the *only*relevant standard is whether Mr. Levine's talents are great enough to render his moral character uninteresting. Does, for example, Von Karajan's genius outweigh his Nazi complicity? I am almost horrified to suggest that it might. Furtwängler fails this simple test. While each of us may use our own personal scale, I would think no less of anyone gives Mr. Levine a free pass.
3
You cannot be serious. A free pass? Please! There is no application of a "personal scale" that makes any of this in any way acceptable. If yours does, please consider having it checked and calibrated. smh
5
Furwangler was not a Nazi. Check your facts. Von Karajan joined the Nazi party twice (at first in 1933 in Austria, when it was illegal).
4
'City Ballet announced it had not corroborated the allegations [against Peter Martins].' - But it's an excellent way to get back at someone you don't like. And completely safe as no one can check the truth of the allegations after 10, 20, or 30 years.
3
Why don’t aficionados of classical music use the evangelical Christian excuse for supporting Donald Trump? Levine may be a perverse reprobate, but he gives his audiences what they want.
The man gets a mulligan.
5
"...artistic director of its young artists program." Really?
This kind of pig we've seen before.
7
Indeed. The country elected him president.
5
A commenter below writes:
And you wonder why so many people don't trust New Yorkers? You folks lionized this creep, and the Boston Symphony was dumb enough to take him, too. As a frequent BSO concert goer, I can tell you he was often a no-show. I hope he's shunned...better than prison for such an egomaniac.
Not to get into too big a response, but this ridiculous slur on New Yorkers is about entirely gratuitous and undeserved.
If everyone had only listened more to New Yorkers in November 2016, the country wouldn't be in the swampy mess it's it in now!
16
Of course! It's not about New York. It's about Levine. He was pulling these shenanigans far from New York when he was in his early 20s!
4
The public can dislodge a talented music conductor for sexual abuse, but alas, the same public is inclined to look the other way when their President is accused of similar moral turpitude.
14
Listen to Uncle Piotr, whenever someone says, “It’s not about the money...” you know it’s ONLY about the money. They milked that cow for all he was worth.
5
For all he is worth -- well, he does happen to be one of the greatest conductors of all time. Of course that would draw a blank from most people, whose cultural awareness is limited to garbage pop. I will further aver than the best system of sexual mores ever put forth is that which was elucidated in the novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley -- and I say this with full awareness that Huxley himself intended it as satire.
1
Surprise surprise the Weisteins, Levines and Lauers were behaving disgracefully in most of this century during the Bush and Obama years and it is only during the Trump presidency that “sexually abusive and harassing conduct.” is coming to light and justice will be done and no new sexual abuse by the powerful will occur.
1
The timing has absolute nothing to do with who was/is president. Anyone who thinks so is deceived.
The only role trump could possibly play is setting the bad example of how to treat people in general, but most specifically women.
4
Not to take away from his disgusting sexual predatory behavior, Levine was a textbook passive aggressive bully. His departure from the Met and the rest of the classical music world is long overdue.
10
Goodbye, Peter Gelb. Time's UP!
8
Gelb got rid of him. It took too long, but why give Joseph Volpe a pass? Rumors have abounded for decades that he used his connections to put to squash any talk. He should have canned him 30 years ago.
2
The NYT continues to use the phrase “sexual misconduct” to describe the sexual abuse of teenagers (see also: stories about Roy Moore). This euphemism minimizes abusive and predatory behavior. “Misconduct” especially rankles here...in an article about a conductor.
14
Teenagers? Then it's rape. We need to call it what it is.
3
Oh please. Everyone (well, at least every gay man in New York City over the age of 40) has known this for decades.
13
Years too late.
6
Time to change the discussion.... What makes these supposed adults behave in a manner that according to our social norms/laws is predatory?? Maybe these guys were powerful and in many cases the behaviour did not/does not affect their life. and maybe in many cases it's no one else's business. (Should paid sex work be legal?) When we are talking about young people -- some are very tough and predatory themselves.. as in "I want to find a rich old man to marry.. because when he dies I'll have his $$.
I am curious as to why Jimmy did it? Had homosexual marriage been legal at that time would he have been able to find a partner and settle down? I met on frequent occasion until a couple of years ago before the therapy -- I one of his "victims"wonder how he behaves now --then he was a brilliant, unsettled young man interested in knowing important people and trying to make money as a broker for more or less anything legal. Now he's over 40. Many victims here -- the adult, who is not socially normal, as well as the adolescent but even pre-teens (11 and up) have ideas (if we admit ourselves to ourselves). $$ and fame distort.
So far as the MET's financial problems... in these days of The Voice and Idol and Talent are the days of opera over?? By shelving the great lavish Zeferelli stagings etc.. The MET lost at part of its audience. Why not a period piece? and why kick someone out of the Met Museum of Art for wearng an 18th C costume?
THINK.
1
Change the names - the process is the same. A powerful, often highly talented person gets a free pass for years despite rumors and reliable complaints. Too bad that they didn't get help instead, before they could victimized so many people.
11
Glen and the Board should go ! Tainted. Filthy. Corrupt.
3
Such a shame
3
Mr. Levine was an important asset; it was easier to cover up his behavior and continue taking advantage of his drawing power, than to suspend him pending investigation. In this respect, the Met was no different from any other organization that allows itself to be hi jacked by a “star” earner.
20
Members of the orchestra have observed Jimmy’s behavior for decades and voiced concern to the unions to no avail. Time is up Jimmy.
27
I have no idea what Levine did or did not do or others did or did not know. However, I do know that "conviction", sentencing, and blacklisting on unspecified, undocumented charges of abuse and harassment brings us back to Joe McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee, blacklists, unidentifiable unimpeachable sources, and all those other embarrassments America thought it left behind a half century ago.
One would think the Times, in reporting the Met's action, would at least try to put some meat on the bones and not reduce itself to gossip and the "journalistic standards" of the Enquirer, Rush Limbaugh, and Donald Trump. One would also like to think that commenters would predicate their conclusions on more than "rumors" and passive-voiced assertions to the effect that, "It was commonly known that Levine...."
It may well be the case that Levine, the Met Board, and many others are guilty of various serious things and should be accordingly dealt with. However, if the basis for his treatment is allowed to proceed without specific public evidence, than any of us could as easily be neutralized as we try to fight against the ignorant, retrograde, mean-spirited, mendacity of the Trump Administration. Must every generation reinvent the wheel? Must we again go through the Fifties?
12
The investigations have been conducted and the evidence may not be the business of the public by agreement with the all of principals. You are not entitled to that information as this case doesn't involve a government entity.
11
The article is full of specifics. If anything it's surprisingly graphic for a Times article. I wonder what is causing your panicked, defensive reaction.
4
Apparently - YES. We are back to the '50s. We have a White House occupier and a party that smear, denigrate and destroy people every single day. Bullying is our national pastime now - all bullying all the time. Ironic, isn't it. The First Lady declares bullying to be her "issue" and she's married to one of the worst.
As for Maestro Levine, just like Harvey Weinstein, got away with it for decades. What do you say to the people who are the victims of this who have neither the financial resources, nor the mental and emotional stamina to accuse someone like this? I'd really like to know. It's much easier to just talk about it, right?
2
America is in full sex panic mode. Sex has suddenly become the most horrible thing imaginable unless it conforms to very strict puritanical constraints. Distinguished people are being vilified and ruined for "inappropriate behavior" that happened years and years ago. I think it's crazy.
11
This isn't about sex. It's about sex as a weapon in the abuse of power and that is pretty horrible.
10
What are you talking about? what abuse of power? who was hurt? has Levine had a chance to defend himself? what will come next, burning at the stake?
1
It isn't sex, navigator, it's abuse of power, at whatever locale or level in either the public or private sectors. It's a really simple concept that some people can't seem to get, especially those who don't wish to get it.
9
Everyone knew. Like others I’ve heard this for years. If the Met meets it end it deserves it for this sleaze.
15
Remarkable! Everyone knew - no one said anything and they found an expensive lawyer to whitewash it. God Bless America!
6
Let’s look forward. We need a vibrant and stable Metropolitan Opera. There needs to be an honest reckoning and frank admission of past sins by those in power who allowed these things to be ignored. Maybe a symbolic head or two (with apologies to Strauss). Then let’s get behind Mr. Nézet-Séguin and let him start the new artistic era so badly needed.
12
I knew. And I’m from Elmira, New York for crying out loud. Shame on the Met. Shame !
23
Just like the Harvey Weinstein saga, this is a familiar scenario of coverup and collusion by a bunch of enablers. Silence is consent - et the chips fall where they may.
8
Levine is among our greatest artists and, like many of his ilk, flawed. May he and those he harmed find peace and may forgiveness of this whole tawdry mess come to US in his recorded legacy which transcends this sad moment. Remember always that YOU are also guilty of something hidden and shameful and have contributed NOTHING to the lives of the rest of us. Face the truth. Go forward in love and may we all learn from this tragedy and do better.
8
Easy sentiment to throw out there coming from someone other than his victims, Jim.
7
Molly, his victims would be better off if they could get to that point. One can live one's life dragged down by it, or come to terms that restore oneself. It's a choice all have.
2
I truly hope his victims find peace, Alan, it's has been and is going to continue to be something that overshadows their lives. That he's been fired is the comfort of knowing they have finally been believed. At this late date, I imagine it's a very small comfort.
They aren't going to find peace when he's continually defended and his abuse belittled and relegated by some to nothing more than a character flaw, no more heinous than the minor ones the rest of us bear. The rest of us seem to get through life just fine without wielding a sense of real or imagined power to sexually abuse others for our own pleasure/just because we can.
2
At The Met: Money Matters rated R should be the name of the documentary soon to come. Like other instructions driven by access and prestige for high level donors, there was no willingness to give up their cash cow (apologies to all bovine beauties out there). Sadly, many who allowed this to happen for years will pay no price.
2
As loathsome as these behaviors are, our society castigates those who cover up these behaviors even more harshly. Of course the accused is responsible for their actions, but is in some ways they are set on a course of behavior by events that we cannot fully understand. But for the many people who facilitated this behavior by ignoring it, covering it up, paying off victims for their silence, knowing full well that they were allowing a serial predator to continue to hurt innocent children......society has shown no tolerance for this behavior. The MET will not survive this disgrace unless it hires an independent investigator to sift through the hidden pay offs and lift the carpets. Of course they new...the board....Peter Gelb....all of then. Like the US Olympic Gymnastics Officials, they all have to go. The only silver lining is that one hopes this will never happen again.
1
Yes, shame on Peter Gelb & the rest of them who choose to ignore!
1
One aspect of the Levine story that hasn't surfaced in the recent allegations, but was widely known in the business: Leading orchestras had staff minders to keep Levine away from the boy choruses. Even in the past decade, this was known in the business to take place at at least one major music festival. That said, surely the Met, with its occasional reliance on boy sopranos and actors, had similar provisions in place. Will the staffers tasked with this ever speak up and reveal what really went on back stage?
15
The Metropolitan Opera has a Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus. It includes boys and girls. When a girl no longer looks like a girl, or gets too tall, she generally can no longer participate in the chorus. When a boy's voice changes, he, too, can no longer participate. The Met's use of child choristers is not "occasional." Children sing in many opera productions: La Boheme, Carmen, Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Wozzeck, Moses und Aron, Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Die Zauberflote, Hansel and Gretel, Tosca (a soloist) to name some. That is one reason references to teens at the Met don't make sense. Once you're a teen, you've aged out. There are wrangles whose job it is to make sure the choristers are in the rehearsal room for rehearsals and to lead them down to the stage at the appropriate times for entrances. The conductor is in the pit.
3
Yes, everyone knew, this was common knowledge!
1
Ellen, are you really saying that teens don't participate in youth programs overseen by the conductor, or don't apply for positions with the orchestra? That is what doesn't make sense here, not that the fact they age out of the chorus means there aren't any teens at the Met.
3
And after the war turned out badly, how many denied any knowledge of the final solution? The Met management had to have known for years. Like so many commenters, I heard it was an open secret decades ago, from someone who sang at the Met in the 1990s. Those complicit in the coverup should be held accountable. The firing of Levine is itself a further coverup, the internal secret investigation, a form of whitewash.
12
He's gone...finally. Having lived a life in New York in the performing arts, I can tell you that people on the inside of this scandal have know about his dalliances with children for decades. The Met has paid off more parents than you can shake a stick at. It's tragic that such a brilliantly talented artist felt so entitled by his position and emboldened by the protection afforded him by the Met that he habitually molested children who gave him their trust.
21
What do you mean by children? His victims were 16-17 at the youngest.
1
Not true. Those men are just the only ones who came forward. But everyone knew for years about the 11 and 12 year olds. I don't know why they haven't spoken out but there must be legal reasons just like there are for Stormy Daniels.
7
Time for the 1998 Dutch Film, The Celebration (Festen), to be widely watched (re-watched) and discussed. It captures in a nutshell the hegemony of silence about abuse, and the attitude of the abusers toward their victims.
2
Danish, not Dutch
Each time there is a revelation of some eminent figure's involvement in sexually abusive behavior there is some degree of lament. From those who are publicly acclaimed we expect sterling behavior off center stage. It suits us to believe only riffraff are sexually maladjusted.
What yet remains to be reported is the landscape is populated with the obsessive sexually maladjusted. Sex supports the economy. Remove sex from display in all its forms (including celebrity culture) and impact on the economy would larger than the bankruptcy of the Lehman's Bros. debacle.
Hollywood systematically abandoned its standard on explicit sex. We are dazzled by sex scenes. Yet our culture would have us prudish. In sex, as in work, we contend with the Protestant ethic--nose on the grindstone, pecker in the pocket. Excesses with the cash we amass are self justified in public as success. Excesses with sex are self justified only in the secret of the dark.
W. Price
7
*Banging my head on the desk* You aren't understanding what is at the core of this situation, or any of them, Wolfgang. Hint: it isn't about Hollywood, nor is it only about sexual standards. Sex was the vehicle, sure. But in the service of abusive power and intimidation.
3
Name one classic music composer who could pass the political or sexual scrutiny by today's standard - not Mozart, not Strauss, not Wagner. Maybe we should stop playing classic music altogether.
5
Can anyone really be this obtuse? "It's not about politics nor sexual scrutiny by today's standards." Can you really not see the abuse of power that is prevalent and has been only now at long last, finally being called to account.
At least one thing is abundantly classic about your response...whataboutism in search of an excuse, any excuse.
6
Backstage at rock concerts? No eager young things are ever waiting for rock stars?
Hildegard von Bingen
1
The Met Board aided and abetted this criminal activity. Although not technically a pedophile, Levine seemed to like boys 16-17, an age that in so many ways is child -like (based on all recent brain research at least). Levine's "brilliance" means nothing. The Met board should be held accountable, because they knew. It's a revolting story, like all the others... Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Tavis Smiley, Russell Simmons....on an on it goes. These men thought they could grab,overpower, even rape whoever looked good to them because they had the power to act with IMPUNITY. No consequences, legal or career-wise would even pop into their minds. They could TAKE what they wanted. And this went on FOR YEARS with entire structures in place of handlers and flunkies aiding and abetting their crimes.
There should absolutely be legal consequences in many of these cases, and if criminality can't be proved, at the very least, civil, financial AND societal consequences should be exacted. If there is any decency left in the elite class, New York Society should run these people out of town.
8
KHD, if this was criminal activity, what law(s) did Levine break?
The punishments meted out by the media and, by inference, the public, for violations of the #MeToo rules are so draconian as to be analogous to the death penalty in jurisprudence. The men who have been determined to be guilty, by popular referendum not by law, are often stripped of their careers, lose their families, see their accomplishments erased, and become pariahs---in other words, lose their lives. Do all infractions of the sexual good-conduct codes deserve the ultimate punishment with no reprieve even for future good behavior?
4
That they are not determined to be guilty "by law" is only a function of statutes of limitations, not their innocence. Organizations are allowed to investigate their employees and fire them based on the evidence.
It's an ultimate good that the public is made aware of these crimes so others who may have been abused may have the what comfort they can in knowing their abuser has been dealt with, even after so long, whether they choose to also come forward or not.
Make no mistake, those who commit such heinous acts, along with those who are complicit are corrupt and bring their just dues upon themselves. No one else is responsible for them.
2
What “future”? His? Theirs? “Infractions”? Please!
2
Customarily, when an accused person is found guilty by a jury made up of his peers and serves the prison term to which he's sentenced he's considered to have paid the price for his crimes and eligible to return to society with his debts paid. When a person is tried and sentenced in the public domain they can never correctly pay their moral debt to society or return to a normal life. Mr. Levine should be tried in a court of law, not on the pages of The New York Times. And, the #MeToo movement is turning into a "guillotine happy" reincarnation of the French Revolution - wake up America, we're better than this. It is proper and fitting to call out people for their criminal behavior publically but the question of guilt or innocence can't be decided by public acclamation, only by an actual trial of the accused where they have the opportunity to present evidence proving the charges to be false. Have we all forgotten the principle "Innocent until proven (in a court of law) guilty?"
2
To be very clear, I do not condone the actions of Mr Levine in any way. But we should be clear about the alleged offense - what it was and what it isn't.
The Times article specifically mentions that the accusers were 17 and 16 at the time the alleged activity took place. Males that age are more accurately described as adolescents, or young men, not "young boys." Males that age who engage in masturbation are not engaging in criminal activity. But when an adult compels such activity by exercise of his authority it becomes something else. And that something else is abuse of power.
In our righteous indignation we should not lose our capacity for making distinctions. Mr Levine did not rape young boys, but he may have abused adolescents or young men by taking advantage of his postion of authority. And that its what is to be condemned.
8
The tech companies have done the same thing. Gone after women,refused to hire qualified minorities,not even giving them a interview. You want the specifics to be spelled out in this case look in your own backyard of greed,racism,sexism, the majority of white men feel that they are masters of the universe and everyone else needs to be a subject. Whatever they hand out people are expected to take it and be so grateful they have a job.
When we are so quick to pass judgement on others we need to look in our own company mirrors,sex, racism and double talk.
A great conductor and a high price to pay when other people's lives were destroyed.
qualified
The Times mentions the accusers who have gone public. The investigator carried out a great many more interviews and the report has not been published. Nobody but a handful of people involved know what the findings were, but they were enough so that the Met felt that they had no option but to fire Levine.
1
The question has been raised, why the MET didn't react earlier regarding the accusations concerning Mr. Levine. Well, as someone who is working in the (opera) industry, I think it is safe to say: because he is not the only one and sexual harrasement is only the tip of a huge iceberg of all kinds of abuses going on in the opera industry. The list of sexual predators working up to this day in big opera companies around the globe is incredibly long and contains a lot of famous names. But in spite of the Weinstein-Hollywood-Scandal no one dares to speak up, since everyone knows at least someone whose career has been destroyed over it. So that's how it usually works: a young artist who is not as compliant as she should be, is not just only not invited again to work at that specific company but can also consider herself lucky when no rumour is started about her, regarding her "low standard artistic skills" ("artistic skills" always come in handy for men in power). To be "not compliant" is in any case not limited to sexual harassment but can also be extented to all kinds of mechanisms of suppression like, to be not ok with being paid less then your male co-workers, to be not ok that female direcors/conductors don't get the same opportunities, to dare to speak up when a co-worker is sexually abused. Careers were ruined over this. And we fear it. The saying is: "There is always someone who is doing the job for less" (money or dignity). The MET-BOD was not unknowing but complicit.
10
I do not believe the artistic behavior is a completely separate domain of behavior from the abusive predatory behavior. The challange for science is to understand the connection. The challange for all of us is to stop the predatory behavior and to allow the artistic behavior be what it is and to decide if we can tolerate interacting with the art. After all we might learn something about the artist if we study the art.
1
It's a sad thought, but cultural organizations that have ignored sexual coersion by star employees or guest artists deserve to suffer painful (but, one hopes, not fatal) economic consequences. It's the only way to end the tolerance of dirty little secrets that insiders know about but fail to act on because of what audiences and funders might think. Joe Paterno fell from his pedestal and Penn State paid huge damages after it was revealed that he and the university's administration had put football success and avoidance of bad publicity above morality, by enabling a sexual predator who happened to be an excellent assistant coach. The consequences should be the same in the arts or any other industry. If extraordinarily talented people know that there will be consequences and no exemptions for sexual or verbal abuse, their behavior will likely improve on all fronts.
7
Many things can exist at the same time. Levine is in many ways an excellent conductor, he was definitely a big part of the reason the Met orchestra became excellent, and he was much much much too powerful, which the board allowed, indeed loved. AND he was a sexual predator. These things coexist.
What I find unforgivable is the Met Admin and Board cover-ups and enabling, and also their usual way of dealing with artists. When they are not as useful--that is financially useful--and at the end of their careers, suddenly their Met-enabled behavior is shocking and unacceptable. See Battle, Kathleen.
I have no love for either Levine or Battle, but my deeper anger is reserved for the Met who MADE these creatures by allowing their behavior which affected everyone around them.
11
Interesting that they released Kathleen Battle in 1994 for being difficult to work with, but allowed Levine to continue his heinous abuse of power for such a long time. What *could* the difference be?
The show must go on! But at what human cost?
6
Has anyone else noticed how the people who have decades of evidence against them like to throw around the word, "rumors"? And they get away with it year after year. Makes me sick. No talent who takes advantage of people is worth protecting. I agree with a lot of comments here: We need to make sure we aren't uplifting and praising these types of people and make sure they never get any sort of power over others. Sadly, the responsibility falls onto those of us who still want to live in a decent world.
9
The sheer arrogance of all involved in perpetuating and covering up this behavior is appalling. No amount of artistic talent justifies it. There is an amazing amount of equally qualified musicians who manage to create their art and at the same time treat their colleagues and subordinates with respect.
11
Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely. In almost every accusation/case of this sort there is always one person of power and one who does not have it. One who takes advantage ot it, and one who suffers because of it. Sadly this will always be the case.
6
No single person should be allowed to have their personal issues and concerns negatively impact an institution that is as culturally important as the Met. The notion that administrators didn't know about Mr. Levine's sexually abusive behavior long ago doesn't pass the laugh test, and the fact that the state of limbo created by his ongoing health crises was allowed to continue for years is evidence of rank incompetence. If the institution is to regain its credibility, the people who enabled these long-running examples of dysfunction need to go. A lack of accountability sends a message of arrogance the Met can ill afford.
10
James Levine is a criminal who got away with sexually abusing his victims for years due to his lofty position at the Met.
It's been an open secret for decades that Levine was fond of young boys, and I can't imagine that his support staff was unaware of his illicit conduct.
The bigger question that deserves consideration is how complicit the Met was, in covering for the maestro, over the years.
Sexually abusing kids is beyond reprehensible, as the abuse crushes the soul of the victims. So much attention is paid to the perpetrators of abuse, while the victims are often left to languish in perpetuity.
13
This is a sad finale to a gifted artist but apparently a predatory one. The disgrace belongs to the Met itself. They must have known. They had to know. I wonder if the Met will now survive. A lot of people need to resign or be fired.
12
"Abuses" of this type will probably never end because in my opinion they're frequently not really abuses. They are "passes". A normal occurrence in a sexually active world.
If the pass is violent, threatening or over persistent its obviously wrong but learning how to deflect attention that one doesn't want is surely a part of growing up. All of us, women and men, are exposed to this at times. Is it really so difficult or upsetting to say no, laugh it off or change the subject? Are we so hopelessly vulnerable? I don't think so.
3
Sometimes. But often not. If a “pass” is made by somebody who is in a position of power over you—whether a boss, or someone who can determine whether you have a future in a particular career—then it can really be seen as no longer just a harmless “pass”. Think of the guy who turned Levine down, and whom Levine then basically punished by acting coldly to him in front of everyone else for the remainder of his time with the orchestra. With any such kind of “pass”, it’s really not just a “pass”...
7
At age 16 or less? Yes.
4
James Levine is not being accused of making a clumsy pass or being a bad date. He is being accused of using his power and position to abuse and manipulate those who had every reason to believe that their professional futures, the future that musicians quite literally spend their entire lifetime working towards, depended upon staying in his good graces. There is nothing benign about this type of behavior. Sex is wonderful. Sex used as a weapon of subjugation is monstrous.
5
What flawed and vengeful creatures we humans are! Every single one of us has done something in our past that we wish would just go away and remain undiscovered. Most of us are lucky. For those who are not, flaws get exposed and lives get turned upside down. Does this make us a better species? I doubt it. Most of us spend a few hours each week in our churches, synagogues and temples where we profess our faith and hear words like "repentance" and "forgiveness". We go home and start each week anew forgetting those concepts.
Yes, we each have hurt others as others have hurt us. We seek our own forgiveness but we fail to forgive and accept others. At some point, the rest of us will have a greater price to pay.
2
Most human beings do not commit crimes. Sexual assault is a crime.
8
Abuse of power to intimidate young people to allow one to use them sexually is NOT a simple, run of the mill character flaw. Please seek some perspective on what happens in this and other abuses propagated when a power imbalance exists between those involved.
2
Crime must be proven in court. Easy and righteous word to toss about however.
This is indeed a tragic ending to a truly great career. James Levine has been the very personification of the Met's high artistic standards and prestige as the top opera house in the world. His professional mentorship of young singers is legendary, just ask the singers.That his immense value to the company made him untouchable to the Met's leadership, which failed to hold him to account for sexual transgressions, heightens the tragedy. It's hard to quantify the psychological damage he may have done with his immature sexual behavior some years ago or whether it warrants, at this belated date, his ignominious dismissal. To what extent was he coercive? The participation of others voluntary? Such details matter, but in an increasingly overwrought atmosphere in which retribution take precedence over due process they can only get lost. Another sad aspect of this story, which the Met (and other institutions) should address, is the leadership's failure to see that on some level, Levine, a musical genius, had serious emotional issues that might have been ameliorated through professional help. He was both the best-known and the least-known person at the Met - an unhappy, sexually arrested child, hiding in a man's body.
10
Oh brother! The guy is a creep and he is paying the price for his creepiness.
9
The rumors about Maestro Levine were circulating when I was in college, in the mid-70s, with jokes about "JL and his all-boy high school orchestra."
I'll be interested to hear what action, if any, will be taken against the Met's executives and board. The quotes in this story use the words "unfounded" and "unsubstantiated" as offering a defense against the stories about JL and the Met's management. "Unfounded" and "unsubstantiated" do not constitute a denial. They are waffle words, and do not mean the same thing as "untrue." It seems evident that management was covering up, protecting, and actually enabling Maestro Levine's deviance. "Unfounded" and "unsubstantiated" can be useful to someone facing charges of perjury.
13
What should be recognized is the way in which many people interpreted all the "rumors" that were flying around - which commenters here take as red flags that were deliberately ignored for malevolent reasons. Remember that in the 70s and 80s gay men were demonized, and it wasn't uncommon for police to cook up false accusations, for envious colleagues to spread untruths in hopes of taking down a gay man, for people who despised homosexuals to rejoice in, and amplify in the retelling, stories of supposed crimes. So yes, some of us "knew," but we also told ourselves that we just might be seeing a smear campaign of an all-too-familiar kind. As it turned out, everything was true - I'm horrified by this truth; all my sympathies are one hundred percent with the victims, and I see how wrong and harmful my long-ago interpretation was. But that interpretation was not originally made to cover up, or turn a blind eye to victims' suffering. It was made with skepticism about accusations leveled against gay men in the context at a time when homophobia was toxic and open in society.
17
But how could prevention of homophobia justify subjecting young people to masturbation? No way.
5
The Met was content with Levine's limited excellence. He was far from excellent in the most important ways. If you are a conductor, you are a teacher, and you should be held to the standards of excellent character that we apply to teachers.
14
No one knew anything of course. There have been rumors flying around Levine for decades but of course no one at the Met knew anything. It's official.
“any claims or rumors that members of the Met’s management or its board of directors engaged in a cover-up of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated.”
11
Someone should write an opera about this case. It has all the tragic elements of the fall of a great man. Our own faults bring us down, eventually.
17
Yes! Someone probably will.
Let he who is without fault cast the first stone.
A common thread in far too many of these events in the entertainment industry is that despicable behavior was happening, so many knew, yet the abuse continued in most cases for decades. One can deduce that the mighty dollar was (and continues to be until proven otherwise) more important than the safety of those from their alleged abusers. Even with all the attention on the topic, will the culture actually change is what we should all be paying attention to and try to keep these organizations accountable.
15
“Happening in entertainment”? How about the Catholic Church, as recently as this week: another priest scandal uncovered there in Michigan.
5
After all is said (and not done), the fact remains that the leadership at the Metropolitan Opera FAILED to establish let alone enforce a SAFE WORK ENVIRONMENT for its employees and contractors, as required by law. And the top leadership consists of the General Manager and the Board of Directors. Period. That neither the current leadership nor their predecessors did anything about it until the NY Post article of a few months ago, raises the specter of implication and cover-up, intentional or not. The so called "exoneration" of the GM and the Board by the private investigation, incredibly done in haste, essentially means nothing. This is not over.
26
It is very important for NYT and other leading news organizations to continue to ferret out and report on these high-profile abuse cases. The years of abuse Levine harped on to young, talented musicians is unforgivable. People like Levine should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, without delay, and put in prison for their crimes against humanity.
The Met should also compensate the victims of Levine's abuse; these victims deserve that minimum degree of solace from an organization that continued to employ Levine and did not immediately and thoroughly investigate the allegations after numerous allegations arose of Levine's abuse of musicians.
20
Of course, a study commissioned by the Met would tend to absolve the Met, itself, of responsibility. Remember the study Chris Christie commissioned about the shutting down of those entry lanes to the George Washington Bridge? But does it even matter to you that the allegations that we have read about occurred before Levine was appointed to his position at the Metropolitan Opera?
Were they ALL Ellen? Really, you're sure? Have you considered the possibility that you may not know the half of it?
1
I just went to the MET website expecting to see a statement about this on its home page, maybe an announcement of a performance benefiting victims of sexual assault, something - but no. The arrogance is staggering. You cannot tune into any professional sports event without hearing all about the news and scandals surrounding it; of course the broadcasters would prefer focusing on the game itself, but they know that they can't ignore these stories, and the organizations themselves have learned the wisdom of getting in front of them by facing them head on and talking about them in public. It's insane that we've come to the point where the NFL is more socially conscious and forthcoming about its own issues than the Metropolitan Opera. Even NBC realized it had to report on the firing of Matt Lauer on its own news programs. The Metropolitan Opera is treating its patrons like children who can't face uncomfortable truths - as if audiences who flock to see The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni aren't capable of recognizing the Almavivas and Giovannis who exist in the real world.
The loss of the Metropolitan Opera would be staggering, but in the 21st century we should no longer countenance a mammoth arts organization in the heart of New York City existing in a bubble.
41
Well put and the way the ways in which the sports world (leagues, players, media) is now dealing with its issues is a strong analogy.
2
The Catholic church ignored the predation of minors for decades. Ought it be thrown out with the bathwater?
If all that bathwater did was to try to wash away the evidence of systematic rape and abuse, then yes. That scandal implicated everyone associated with the church, because we found out that church money which originated with parishioners was used to enable a system in which sexual predators was protected. Everyone who donated to the church thus became an accessory to a horrible crime. To my mind that's a good enough reason to shut down an institution, especially since it illustrates the hollowness of the doctrine it espouses.
If it turns out that a local business is a front for selling drugs or human trafficking, no one mourns when that business is shut down by the authorities. In the last few years we have learned that the Penn State football program, the Catholic Church, the USA Gymnastic Olympic Team and the Metropolitan Opera have systematically enabled the sexual abuse of young people. Everyone who bought a ticket to a Met performance in the last 40 years is an accessory to rape. Now that we are conscious of this fact, the continued support of this institution is a moral outrage. From now on, every dollar you spend at the Met, every dollar you give to the Catholic Church, every dollar you spend on the Olympics or college football, is a vote in favor of pedophilia. There is no justification for it; the information is out there. By supporting these institutions you are sending the clear message that the abuse and suffering of those youths don't matter to you.
1
I once saw Levine on a shuttle flight to Boston during his BSO years. He looked to me like a very unhappy human being, engaging with not a single soul (even eye contact or small pleasantries) during an era when he was known in the city but largely mysterious.
We really have low standards sometimes for those on whom we lavish such praise and professional admiration.
16
Maybe he was concentrating on something. Maybe he wasn't feeling well. Good grief.
2
"Three decades later — after, Mr. Pai said, therapy had helped him realize how destructive those encounters had been..."
Of all the various descriptions of these incidents by victims of all sorts it is this type that leave me the most skeptical. If you don't know that you have been injured until 3 decades after the fact then, well, you probably weren't injured. This particular case may be another example of someone for whom therapy is an exercise in blame shifting: "I was abused, therefore it's not my fault I'm a terrible person today."
Mr. Levine seems to have been a bit of a creep just like many of the others we've heard about this past year. Being gay in 60's, 70's, and 80's was no easy life either. Perhaps he just needed therapy too.
28
The abuses were not limited to the 60's, 70's, and 80's. They continued at least into the early years of this century.
11
Being injured and realizing you have been injured are two different things. It can take years to understand how something has affected you, but that doesn't mean it didn't have its effect at the time and in following years. Many young people are impressionable and don't have the experience to step back and evaluate the whole picture. These musicians were at the very start of their careers and were in awe of Mr. Levine, who took advantage of their naivete and need for his approval; his behavior was completely outside the realm of what a teacher/student relationship should be. Many people "need therapy" and do not ensnare others in their troubles to make themselves feel better.
12
You wouldn't be skeptical if someone decades older than you took advantage of you as a naive child. The fact is what happens to the psyche of a teen who is abused by an adult is so complicated it takes a professional to sort it out. There are pre-pubescent children who enjoy sexual activity with grown adults. We still know this is wrong and the blame rests with the adult. Nothing changes after the child goes through puberty. They are just as lost and confused and vulnerable, and adults should know better than to get involved with them sexually.
A person has every right to acknowledge the abuse they suffered on their own time table. People with PhDs took a lot of time to figure this all out. If there were a way to rush the process, you bet folks would do it rather than suffer slowly. If you had ever been to therapy you would know that it isn't a place where you are allowed to shrink away from your own responsibility. However, you also aren't allowed to blame yourself for the poor choices of others. I really wish you wouldn't use being gay as an excuse. If you want to blame society, blame the fact that no one takes consent seriously. My preference has been heavily frowned upon, and has left me outcast in many situations. You don't see me turning around and taking advantage of kids.
11
A reminder of ever present realities. All sorts of people, have all sorts of abilities, skills, and talents which can satisfy daily living for, and with, fellow human beings, as they themselves behave in ranges of to be admired to criminal, violating, ummenschlich ways. It's not either/ or predictable-packaged-persons. Rather, a person's self-created identity, as well as identity produced and sustained by others, can snd does exist and operate distinct from their many overt and hidden behaviors.Hands which produce music can and do violate bodies, psyches and souls!The binary banality of anchored either/or, good or bad, is challenged by nuancing-reality's and in addition, and in addition...A further consideration.As one moves from a rumor, a letter, a transmitted to-be-checked-out "datum,"and analyze it appropriately over time to achieve a reliable sense and state of knowing, and then invest time and energies in deriving, and creating, needed levels and qualities of understanding, with its direct, as well as nonlinear based meanings, and implications, is a viable effort over.This article clearly describes, but inadequately explains,"investigations" which ended in too-early closures.Who and what enabled this? What types of queries were raised?Which questions, with their built-in necessary quests, were not considered?Enabling ongoing violating conduct against young fellow beings to continue. As the conductor conducted music for receptive, unknowing listeners and followers.
4
It's been a "trickle down" experience starting with the exposure of the Catholic Church; and the "Me Too" movement. Nevertheless, it has taken a long time.
Hopefully this will be a lesson to everyone and help prevent further abuses.
22
"...Any claims or rumors that members of the Met’s management or its board of directors engaged in a cover-up of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated." Hahaha. All of New York knew, including people with absolutely no interest in opera, except the Met’s management or its board of directors. Oh please.
102
I knew about it. I don't live in New York and I hate opera.
5
Well, it seems to me he could just have had a strong, perhaps justifiable, psychological reaction to the awful abuse he had himself been subjected to all those years by his barber. Just saying.
2
I was sexually abused for eight years as a child, but never even thought of inflicting such pain on anyone else. Most survivors would say the same! Levine's own past may be an explanation, but never a justification.
A sad end to a brilliant musical career, but a just and fitting retribution for the pain that Mr. Levine has caused others,
34
Sad that it didn't end sooner? There's no justice here. Justice would have been a man like that never being given power over others to begin with. Retribution? Impossible. It's our responsibility as decent people to make sure the people we give power to aren't abusers, and we are still failing, miserably.
1
To those who say he was unfairly punished: He has not been prosecuted and has not endured unfair punishment at the hands of the law. He has been fired, which is an employer's right, for behaviors they believe (after investigating) he committed.
The day he goes to jail without a trial is the day he's being unfairly treated. There's a difference between being fired and being prosecuted. I'll bet you know someone who was fired for less.
89
Interesting, Anglican. You believe as long as it doesn’t break the law, it can’t be considered unfair. Is that correct?
Not at all. His firing may certainly be considered unfair. If he hasn't done any of the things he's accused of, it is spectacularly unfair. But you don't think a whole bunch of men from different parts of the country got together to craft false stories just to get a blameless man fired, do you?
I am addressing those who complain he has been "prosecuted" or "punished," when in my view it is an employer's right (and responsibility) to judge whether or not an employee is right for the organization. The Met investigated. They surely would not fire a money-machine like Levine unless they thought he was more of a deficit than an asset. When an employee becomes a drag on the organization, it's the board's responsibility to fire him, perhaps with a good severance package if he's been good for them in the past.
1
I feel strong disgust for Levine and for the Met management and Board members who hushed this up for decades. But I am also very much worried that this extraordinary opera company, which has brought me so much pleasure for so many decades, may be irrevocably damaged.
Those who will suffer won't be the ones who had both the power and the responsibility to confront and fire Levine a long time ago - it will be primarily the hundreds of professionals of all kinds who work at the Met, and the unknown number of us who deeply love opera and get our fix from the Met. (I'm listening to SiriusXM as I write.) I feel very sad about this.
60
You're reacting in the heat of the moment. When the dust settles, the Met will put on operas, people will watch them.
13
Give me a break! Millie's post is about the immense collateral damage to all the MET people who have partners, families, children to care for.
Levine's career might be ended but he's immensely rich. Not so for all the artists, staff who may suffer.
18
The Levine tragedy is precisely why society needs to understand that LGBT attraction is absolutely normal.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, artistic organizations like The Metropolitan Opera were filled with staff and stars who were gay. But the stigma of being LGBT meant that sexual orientations had to be kept secret. And then AIDS made everything much worse:
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/1987/03/devastation-of-aids-1980s
The secrecy did some good--it protected those people who deserved protection—absolutely normal, loving LGBT people who were in consensual relationships.
And the secrecy did a lot of bad—it protected other people, the Weinstein-and-Levine-sort of people, who did not deserve such protection. And it hurt a lot of innocent people who were abused within that shroud of secrecy.
The thing is this. A lot of arts organizations provided amazing livelihoods and sanctuaries for LGBT people. But fear of having some of their best employees harassed, shamed, arrested, and/or forced into reparative therapy—and fear of a prudish audience taking its dollars elsewhere—created an atmosphere where people looked away from complaints and were reluctant to dig into personal lives. That was wrong.
The Met needs to be honest with itself—and work really hard to make its humanity match its artistry.
The injured deserve reparations. And let's not forget that there were people (as unhappy as the character of Giles in The Shape of Water) who found a safe home at the Met.
51
Agreed. This can't be turned into an effort at bashing emotionally healthy LGBT people.
12
I agree that the repression of LGBT people has caused bad, sometimes criminal, behavior on the part of some, but that is not what is at issue here. Levine's sins, and those of Weinstein and so many others, were not founded on hiding his sexuality but on abusing the power of his position.
4
It has nothing to do with LGBTQ. Why must we portray Levine's creepy behavior as if it was normal in any sense?
6
The comments sing the same aria: everybody knew it a long time ago.
44
More like recitative, if you ask me.
This was never going to be a surprise. The Board was as tight with its benefactors as could be. There were no secrets in that rarified environment. To be willfully blind is the same as being complicit. As long as the orchestra's reputation remained stellar, it was anything goes for Maestro Levine.
What price success, Mr. Gelb?
47
As I read the comments, maybe the lesson will finally set in that even geniuses, star business professional, artists, movie makers, musicians, etc....are people. Regardless, they need to be held to the same standards as the rest of us in terms of right and wrong. Just because you have high talent and bring in the dough, even in a capitalistic society, sexual harassment is never OK. This is his legacy. Happy retirement after a long career.
17
Living in a wheelchair and being publically shamed is not a happy retirement and not every "victim" faired badly. What did the acnsients think about man-boy love?? Did sex come along as part of mentorship? When men marry women many years younger -- starting at 10 in my book --no one says anything. When wome marry younger men, tongues wag-- love the president of France ... and yes more than one May-September roman can begin when one the parties is very young as it did in that case.
I am neither condoning nor criticizing. If there is coercion... and the victims did not in many cases speak out at the time -- shame?? or something else e.g. hope?? belief that s/he woudl not be believed?
The NYTimes IMO needs a truly competant psychiatrist on staff to explain some of these personality types to the rest of us.
I was on sabbatical in NYC 1970-71. I knew several people who worked at the Met and rumors about "Jimmy's boys" were already commonplace, It's terribly sad because he was a fine conductor and did so much to make the Met the
Mecca of opera fans all over the world.
I do not see how slashing the Met's funding needs would help Levine's victims. It would punish all opera fans who truck to the Met every year bringing more business to the restaurants in that area, and to hotels, and other tourist attractions.
It would also be outrageously simple-minded and unjust to punish the entire establishment for felonies committed by a small number of people.
I
37
As so many have noted, this was an open secret — hardly the right term, more like just "known" — for far too long for this to be "better late than never."
11
What has become unacceptable is not such vile behavior by individuals, but institutions getting caught ignoring it. Only when their income stream seemed threatened by negative publicity did the Met decide to announce, like Captain Louis Renault, "I'm shocked! Shocked."
The Met has concluded an investigation of Levine. Now we need another investigation to discover how Mr. Levine was allowed, by the Met and other institutions, to hurt people for 50 years.
50 years.
"Rumors about Mr. Levine and sexual abuse swirled throughout his career."
Where were the prosecutors?
Where were the police?
How did this man have the power to evade arrest?
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
49
A bit of money might have brought silence.
No, Rev. Both are unacceptable, the crime and the coverup.
Nothing that goes on for 50 years can be remotely considered "unacceptable." Many people accepted this for decades. Even nurtured it. That's why it took so long. We need to know who allowed that.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
What a sad ending to a magnificent journey.
And while misdemeanors as salacious as they may be, should not be tolerated, Levines "Ring", "Tristan", and many others, will keep on ringing, for me, for us, opera lovers...
9
Misdemeanors? Did you unwittingly or willingly choose the inappropriate word, Michael?
1
Not misdemeanors even, since that is a crime term used in court. These are allegations unproven save in the writhings of the media mob.
I have no idea what Levine did or did not do. However, I do know that "conviction" on unspecified, undocumented charges of abuse and harassment brings us back to Joe McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee, blacklists, unidentifiable unimpeachable sources, and all those other embarrassments America thought it left behind a half century ago.
17
Yet they aren't unspecified or undocumented, Steve. This is a far cry from the actions of McCarthy. That Levine and others like him are not currently being convicted in a court of law is function of the statute of limitations, not a matter of their innocence.
18
Did you read the article? The accusations are quite specific and documented, complete with the names of the accusers.
3
Sorry, but it's necessary. These crimes are invisible.
I spent 48 years in the broadcasting business and knew a number of people plugged into the classical music business and RCA records for whom Mr. Levine recorded. I had heard rumors of his predilection for young boys decades ago. When all this came out I thought," aha he finally got caught."
33
When Larry Nassar, Jerry Sandusky and many Catholic priests were convicted of sexual crimes, the institutions they worked for were condemned just as much as the actual assailants for looking the other way and creating an atmosphere that enabled those crimes to occur. If James Levine has his day in court and is found guilty, that's the end of the Metropolitan Opera - and rightly so. I do not say that lightly. I was a working musician for many years and I know several people who have worked for the Met; I myself worked for the Met Opera Guild in a minor capacity twenty years ago. The impact of their demise would be devastating. But it is inconceivable that the Met management did not know about the longest-running open secret about a living person in the classical music world. In a way, we're all guilty. No one had the guts to act on this until Levine's career was essentially over anyway due to his health issues. They waited until he was no longer useful to the organization to do what they - or one of the many other organizations that enabled his behavior like the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon et al - should have done decades ago: fire him and report him to law enforcement. The fact that he was able to serve out his career is an outrage and if this destroys what's left of the classical music industry that would be sad but not nearly as tragic as what happened to the young men unfortunate enough to be molested by the maestro.
61
Agreed.
And I am even more outraged at the years of inaction over JL ( I live in CT and and I heard credible rumors about him in the ‘80’s) when they managed to fire Kathleen Battle for just basically being a jerk. What kind of sick double standard is that?
2
I agree with much of what you've said, James. But unless there are recent allegations that fall within the statute of limitations, there will be no day in court for Levine. The only thing his victims can take comfort in, small as it may be at this late date, is that he's been caught out and fired. The larger comfort will be that they are now believed.
1
If the Met thinks this, plus the whitewash from the expensive law firm hired for that purpose, marks the end of this long-running tawdry episode, it had better correct itself. The revelations of the Met's complicity will keep coming. Among other MacGuffins in this story is the nugget that Levine continued to conduct from a wheelchair and with Parkinson's. He was only forced down after orchestra members complained they couldn't follow him. Now one has to ask whether he continued to conduct, with Gelb's active connivance, so as to try to keep the himself surrounded by the cocoon of the Met's protection for as long as possible.
20
This is another case of a "venerable institution" (see: Catholic Church, Hollywood and scores of others) protecting its star money makers from legal and moral retribution. I was a subscriber to the Met Opera for years and had repeatedly heard stories of Levine's abuse of young boys. Finally, the Met has no choice but to acknowledge this abuse. Shame on Levine and more shame on the Met for keeping a blind eye to this abuse.
33
I was blown away by Yannick conducting Elektra - the Met is in good hands.
22
But is it now being extremely watchful?
1
Shame on the Metropolitan Opera for crucifying one of the greatest conductors ever. I attended about a dozen Met performances during the 2016-17 season, although far fewer this season. Now, I am seriously considering boycotting the Met for at least the remainder of this season and all of next year, despite the Met's excellent choice of Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its new music director, and despite the fact that Wagner's Ring Cycle is scheduled for the 2018-19 season.
10
Crucifying? What are you talking about? He did it to himself. They ignored it for years.
3
Seems they didn't "crucify" him soon enough to save more victims from his abuse, otherwise.
No doubt others will surely boycott the Met in the coming season, but not for the same twisted reasoning on display in this comment. Those who do have the very creditable reason of the Met's refusal to act on the very credible evidence much sooner, and those with the power to act having apparently been complicit in the coverup.
But I'm certain you will be missed all the same. /s
2
The notion that a serial sexual abuser being held to account is shameful is preposterous. Your values are skewed.
6
I am both intensely saddened and simultaneously angry. I grew up, from the age of 12 in 1950, in a household where Saturday afternoons were sacrosanct; do not speak except at intermission, and have loved opera ever since. Levine has so sullied my 60+ years of memories -- he cannot be forgiven.
24
I was prepared to feel sorry for a great conductor, but as I read down in the article and saw the full scope of the accusations my reaction changed to one of horror and disgust. That the Met allowed this to continue is beyond repulsive. They join many other institutions, from the Catholic Church to Horace Mann, that have put institutional interests and cronyism before the well-being of children.
Maybe someday someone will write an opera about that.
44
An opera about sexual abuse, now there is a thought. It would have all the ingredients for a good opera: love, betrayal, struggle and despair, destruction, maybe redemption, A marvelous idea. Maybe it could be set at the Met.
10
It would be just perfect. You could have operas within the opera, written in various period styles, each being an ironic gloss on what was happening to the heroine. Who, despairing, would take her own life, after which the music director would realize he was genuinely in love with her, regret his crimes, and redeem himself by joining her in death . . .
1
Tosca, The Marriage of Figaro, and many other operas are all about sexual abuse/harrassment.
3
The Met knew for, well, decades and it did not mind as long as Mr. Levine was bringing in ticket sales. Collusion indeed!
36
The Board of Trustees at the Met will never be free of the indelible stain of its most unforgivable sin: COMPLICITY.
53
"Indelible stain" and "unforgivable sin" -- what powerful figures of speech! No, not really. Such figures of speech are merely trite.
2
Says you, otherwise.
1
Forgive me....it's not that I disagree with your comment. But, Sister, I think you should drop the stones given the Catholic Church's history with similar crimes.
1
It does seem that wealthy celebrities who, in this case, are also brilliant artists, claim consciously or not to be above the moral code imposed on mere mortals. I heard about "Jimmy Levine" and his entourage of young boys in 1981, made even worse by being characterized as a gay perversion. However, not to condone the behavior, if we look back throughout history, some of the acclaimed artists of their time carried on in the manner of Mr. Levine and in certain times and European cultures, it was simply accepted, just as having a mistress is far more tolerated in France.
However, here there are young boys which adds another layer of outrage by some commentators. If we ever hear the testimony of a young (or now older) man whose life was destroyed by the improprieties of Mr. Levine, I would be more likely to join the chorus of guilty until proven innocent. From the reporting I just read, it seems that many of the young men went on to be quite successful as musicians. So I have mixed feelings about protecting the private life and punishing the "crimes." And the music that Mr. Levine created was sublime, which does not excuse his behavior but for which he must be given credit.
7
Really?? Those young men may be outwardly "successful" but that hardly means that they didn't suffer.
33
You can't possibly have thoroughly thought out all the facets of this and still come to this conclusion, Christina.
The fact that the ones coming forward weren't destroyed, but went on to become successful musicians? That makes what he did to them acceptable? What about their exclusion from the house of their choosing or of those who weren't so fortunate as to go on to become successful? What of the psychological effects these men have carried all of their lives because of this exploitation by someone so powerful in their lives, some who have been (mis)placing blame on themselves for acquiescing unwillingly because of the fear of failure during the time of their victimization?
Please! Spare us all this sanctimony!
2
So young men who have proven resilient enough to go on and achieve success in their chosen field are to be further abused by having their success used as evidence that what Levine did wasn’t so bad?
2
The sad, sorry truth of the matter is that people of immense talent -- not unlike people of great power or wealth -- are often given a pass for conduct that would be tolerated from no one of lesser status. People around them -- and in the case of Levine, that includes the Met's board of directors -- simply refuse to see what is going. So when will the board fire itself?
55
No, it’s men (usually white) of immense talent that are given a pass...
6
Ask our President has said, "when you're a star, they let you do anything!"
4
The rumors of Levine's sleazy behavior have been around for years. However. How cutting off the Met's funding, at a time when classical music and opera are teetering on the brink of extinction, would be helpful, is not clear to me. That James Levine, who has been paid very handsomely, over a very, very long career, should compensate his victims, is just and sensible.
And... down the pike, perhaps the next Met GM should be female. We need new voices to breath new life and inspiration into a great art form, that once was considered per: Nicholas Tilll's Mozart and the Enlightenment, the most powerful form of moral suasion in the world.
28
So many commenters here, like me, have nothing to do with the opera world and have been hearing the stories for years. It was an open secret. Indeed, the rumors often said that the Met paid sundry people off. For the Met board and Mr. Gelb to say otherwise is an insult to all of us. They owe us an apology but much more important they owe his victims apologies and then some.
It’s probably not safe to ask this question but where were the New York media? If ordinary citizens knew, surely they did, too.
83
Lawsuits? The law doesn't protect the young victims, it protects the wealthy predator.
Let's ask Joseph Volpe what he knew and suppressed!
1
I heard of these rumors almost 15 years ago, and I'm not an opera insider, just someone on the periphery. It seems incredible to me that the Met leadership did not at least hear of these rumors, and show any curiosity about them at the very least.
79
Full restitution for the abused is probably impossible, but this dismissal and public humiliation, a major and sincere apology from management, the revelation and replacement of any and all in charge who let it happen, therapy paid for by the Met for as long as it's needed, and a nice big check to each person who was victimized might help a little.
31
I heard these stories 40 years ago --- and if I, a lowly college student knew, you can be sure that the Met knew. The Met needs to be punished. Those who allowed it should be prosecuted, the Met's funding needs to be slashed, and the names of every board member who presided over each and every year during Levine's reign should be published -- just like some communities publish the names of convicted johns. Only when this institution and the people who run it are held accountable, will there be any kind of justice.
138
Do you want to kill the Met? "Slashing" their funding would likely do that.
28
Members of management, the board and others should be punished but slashing the Met's budget only hurts the very many more people in such a large organization who are work hard to bring opera productions to the stage.
45
This bloated organization pays stagehands upward of a half-million bucks. Feel sorry not.
3
The man is probably the greatest opera conductor/interpreter of all time. Although I can not condone the behavior, he has not fallen from my grace.
37
I get you. The art exists separately from the artist.
27
The vast majority wouldn't be able to tell if Levine or any other competent conductor was leading the orchestra. Just as most people who spend $50 on a bottle of wine would not be able to distinguish it from wines costing $20.
33
Of all time? And that's enough to keep him in 'grace'?
If we listen to Wagner, we are already separating art from artist. But it's truly criminal to empower an abuser. Yes, Levine built the Met orchestra into a sterling ensemble (better than the NY Phil, to my taste, during the 1990s, when I spent at least 25 nights a year in the house).
But there are other great conductors of opera, and did you personally hear Toscanini? The claim is hyperbole, the reaction cynical.
18
Add my voice to the chorus of those who were told about Levine's predilections years ago. In my case it was in the 90's from an opera singer who had worked in several of his productions. The word at the time was that the reason he was so famously 'private' was because he was so eager to keep his behavior away from public scrutiny.
The puzzling thing to me in the intervening years is not so much how people covered up for him or turned a blind eye. Many, many organizations did the same and still do. Rather, I never understood how he held two major performing arts organizations (the Met and the BSO) hostage with his refusal to step aside as his health declined. No one had the nerve to ask him to retire, even when cancellations rather than actual performances became the norm, and when the actual performances were inferior to his best work. Because of that, I came to view him as simultaneously sad and incredibly self-centered and stopped admiring him a long time ago.
154
Completely agree - nobody convicted in a court of law following a fair and impartial trial - of such heinous crimes should be allowed to remain free !!!
Oh wait ....
19
Some "legal eagle." But keep defending a sexual predator whose crimes are well documented.
2
Surely you do know, Legal Eagle, that unless more recent incidences come to light, ones that fall within the statute of limitations, there will not be a hearing in a court of law. There won't be that sort of closure for his victims. This firing is the only comfort they will receive, the fact that at last they've finally been believed.
1
Sorry to hear it's come to this. I have seen with my own eyes in distant encounters around New York and also heard from friends at Aspen that Levine enjoyed the company of younger men (none underage). In 2016 the Lake Forest Police should have alerted the Met. And Peter Gelb should have done something long before this. He should resign for his silence and for the company's own good (it's overdue).
But the additional artistic and critical problems still exist. Should I discard my two CDs of Levine and should the Sirius Met Station stop playing his broadcasts? That slights a lot of superb singing, a lot of fine orchestral playing. My suggestion remains: arrange for Levine's royalties from these broadcasts and the various CD recordings to support a fund for the victims. They've suffered, and their pain deserves some slight recompense. Though financial compensation never erases the memory of abuse, it's the best we can do.
69
Gelb needs to go.
69
For this and many other reasons. When Gelb began his tenure attendance was booming, the coffers were full, and the Met was at its artistic peak. I don't understand why no one blames him for the precipitous demise of what was once the world's greatest opera company. And if he refuses to clean house - including himself - of all those who looked the other way while Levine was allowed to molest unmolested, than what happened to Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier should happen to him.
16
And those before him (Volpe) need to b chastised. There has been long standing talk of Levine's repulsive behavior toward young boys for years. The Met has lost all moral authority.
2
It seems reasonable to consider guys like Levine must have been abused in some way or other themselves. How else could they consider their behavior to be other than master and slave?
Men have a problem with being open and forthright because we are taught from birth to accept the lies of male superiority. This urge to dominate originates in whatever part of our brains remain undeveloped and expresses itself in this as well as other forms of physical control.
Unfortunately the bridge which allows passage of thought to move freely is controlled as it has been by the most damaged and egregious among us. Until we actually begin to accept the truth rather than the fictions which keep the abusive in power nothing will be solved. We are not playing cards and belief cannot trump reality
I suspect the ages old denigration of women, now coupled with that directed to the young students who are demanding their voice be heard, is a response orchestrated by the men in power who sense where these paths are leading. What they don't get is just how fed up most of us are with their control and where it has taken our nation.
The world is awash with males who only know that might is what has always worked, but their, or our world's, days are numbered. Male arrogance, which is on full display throughout the world, precedes pride as the cause of failure. I trust we as a people wake up to the wisdom contained in that biblical proverb before more lasting, even irretrievable, damage is done.
.
10
Just a sidebar: Current scientific understanding has rather debunked the idea that prior abuse makes the abuser.
And ample evidence suggests that power, and impunity, fuels the abuser. Our cult of the Great Man / Leader / Conductor / CEO / [fill in the blank] is deeply human, and yet terribly corrupt.
9
Just tough to figure anyone who exercises reason becomes abusive without some modeling.
Justice, in sexual matters, is both sexual and personal. To pretend that anything other than prolonged physical abuse (rape, slavery, and imprisonment), requires prosecution and jail time and confession, and lifetime humiliation, is to condemn us all to a sanctified chastity and sterility. "Bye, bye humanity (happiness). Hello loneliness. I think that I could cry."
11
Speak for yourself, Acronzy. I don't feel in the least "condemned to sanctified chastity and sterility". But then I've not used any power or sense of power to victimize the unwilling, sexually or otherwise, whose careers I may have held sway. Totally blind and reprehensible that it doesn't meet your apparently low bar for compassion and humanity. Comments such as these make me wonder what secrets the people who make them are themselves hiding and attempting to evade.
Virulence and innuendo are cheap tricks in reply to my plea for the time honored rituals of romance. If one can't adore another without signing a contract, then where's the fun in that? As for compassion, it is multi-faceted, and embraces both the abused and the lovelorn.
"The Met said that its investigation, which was led by Robert J. Cleary, a partner at the Proskauer Rose law firm who was previously a United States attorney in New Jersey and Illinois, had determined that “any claims or rumors that members of the Met’s management or its board of directors engaged in a cover-up of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated.”
Cover up of information? Maybe not? Cast a blind eye or looked the other way? Most certainly. Management did know or should have known. Either way, they didn't do their job and many people suffered because of it.
50
I'm never surprised when a high-powered law firm hired by management and a board of directors exonerates said management and board of directors.
77
What a Schlamassel! The moral outrage by so many here is understandable. Schneiderman made the point that 30/40 years ago this preying on young men was considered differently. Intriguingly, in the Ashok Pai case, the law enforcement officials "would not bring criminal charges against Mr. Levine, noting that while the state’s age of consent is now 17 — and 18 in some cases — it was still 16 in 1986." In that case Mr. Levine would/could not be prosecuted. Doesn't make him less immoral as a serial predator in usually unequal relationships where he was a person of higher standing taking advantage. He became a much celebrated, highly successful musician/conductor and a man of privilege & power. To redeem himself he could start a foundation to help victims of sexual abuse in the arts/music. Make up for the many misdeeds.
19
Citing a younger age of consent at the time is a lame excuse for dismissing the case. When a sexual relationship isn't consensual, age of consent is irrelevant. You just prosecute under a different law.
1
I chose my heroes early.
They were my parents who displayed great courage in escaping the Nazis and later presented me with many more opportunities in life than I had any right to;
H.L. Mencken for his writing style, boundless energy in presenting uncommon truths to the American people and ability to make me laugh;
Willie Mays, who I hoped to replace in center field, but never did.
The brave soldiers, sailors, pilots and Marines of this country who defeated the Nazis and made it possible for me to live in this blessed country.
I've always been happy with my choices.
Choosing the right heroes in life is a task of immense importance. There ought to be classes in elementary schools teaching kids how to properly do it.
Because once you go wrong and choose a Trump, Levine or a Weinstein, you likely will never recover from it.
56
You can never know what will come to light about a person - we still learn about foibles/spleens/dark sides of many important people long gone.
Maybe it's more important to get away from the uncritical adulation of 'famous' people, but to take them for what many of them are - glorious and fallible, brilliant, jerks, and everything in-between. The notion of 'heroes' is greatly inflated...
2
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you need to find a new hero to replace Mencken - maybe Mark Twain or Oscar Wilde, perhaps. Mencken was a virulent anti-Semite and pro-Nazi. He probably wouldn't have helped your parents escape, either.
5
I agree with light'n fast. It's one thing to admire someone, but placing them on the pedestal of hero sets us up for disappointment, and does them no great favor either.
Your parents excepted.
My heart goes out to the victims of James Levine’s abuse. It seems that anger is growing more intense at the Met’s management for its handling of this tragedy. What about the foundations and donors who have been supporting the Met financially all these years? Presumably they have received appeals from the Met’s fundraising department, year after year, extolling the virtues of Levine and appealing for funds on the basis of Levine’s achievements in elevating the culture of the United States. I have a message for these donors: you were lied to, and I have a recommendation to the presidents of foundations who have supported the Met annually: take a year off from funding the Met to show solidarity with the victims of Levine’s abuse, and give the Met management some time off to consider its ethics.
12
Yes by all means let's punish the singers and musicians who will appear on the program next year. It's their fault and they must suffer.
30
I imagine that a few corporations will take some time off from contributing without any kind of a campaign to request it . They won't want to be associated with the fallout from this.
8
I agree -- punishing the singers and musicians would be a terrible thing to do. But the general manager and the members of the board, however . . .
7
So once James Levine was nearing the end of his career anyway, and his predecessor was identified, and after sitting on it for how long, only then is he removed from his position? Seems like some of the board and MET leadership should be removed from their positions as well.
107
Absolutely- the MET leadership absolutely knew, we all knew!
46
Who is his predecessor?
9
His predecessor as music director was Rafael Kubelik (1973-74). (Before that the man in charge was Kurt Adler, who was at the Met from 1943-73.) His successor, starting this year, is Yannick Nezet-Seguin.
4
To my mind the most negative aspect of Mr. Levine's long reign at the Met is the complete transfer of focus from the singers to the orchestra. Listening as I often do to Met Opera Radio on SiriusXM I find that my memories of the broadcasts I heard as a young man hold true, that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Met orchestra in the 1960s. Perhaps Levine tightened the playing up a bit, but how many people attend the opera to listen to what's going on in the pit. When the Met's recording of the Ring Cycle was released, fawning critics dubbed it the finest ever. Had these critics never heard the Decca release, with Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic? And the singers that seemed to be the favorites of Levine? Only a sense of civility keeps me from naming second rate singer after second rate singer. But oh, that orchestra! One can only hope hope that, as Peter Gelb himself stated a short time ago, that it's time for the Met to once again focus on bringing the best singers the world has to offer to an opera house that now seems a dim shadow of its former self.
29
Who is on the international circuit not heard at the Met?
7
I don't see the Met as ever having downgraded singers. In fact, in the past several years, if anything, it has been pursuing the big star singers and the up-and-comers as much as it ever did.
7
I own a lot of Ring cycles. I would never own Levine. It wasn't that well sung, it wasn't that well recorded, and he was never an interesting Wagner conductor. Karajan, for all his moral foibles, was capable of shaping a musical phrase in a way that Levine could only dream of. Goodall brought more humanity to that music than any conductor post-Furtwangler. Solti had a fabulous orchestra and cast - even if the sound was a little too souped up (and not in a proper audiophile way). The Levine Ring is for people who don't understand the Wagner tradition.
11
The point is that sexual abuse, the abuse of power, will no longer be tolerated; that should be completely clear. The Met did what was necessary, however unfortunate.
15
Leonard Bernstein was fortunate to have lived earlier.
21
They sure took their sweet time to do the "necessary" thing, after he was of no further use to them.
59
Picasso too. I agree . I keep saying the same thing. Not that I condone the behavior.
3
Great to see how a wonderful institution shoots itself in the foot in the quest for politically correct behavior from anyone going back however long any one person can remember. Haven't we had enough of this warlock hunt?
13
Since 1979. Does that make a difference?
9
Are you kidding me? Warlock hunt? Time does not diminish the trauma and irreparable harm that victims of sexual abuse experience. James Levine is a criminal who was able to use his lofty position to avoid prosecution. A warlock? No. A monster? YES.
36
Politically correct, sbmd? THAT is your take away from all of this? That term has become synonymous with and is being wielded as a bludgeon for cover of reprehensible behavior in this and many other cases, attempts to silence victims of a litany of abuses, as well as a "right" to be crude and cruel to anyone people such as yourself deem to be "The Other". How reprehensible.
"Art" is supposed to be truth and beauty, but it is an evil bloom grown in corruption if it robs the young of their innocence as the price they must pay for favor.
39
this is saddening. I don't want to hold a double standard, forgiving the sins of artistically talented men and ostracizing the Trumps of the world. . . and gay men often seem to get more of a pass than straight men. I guess we have to take into consideration that it was so difficult for them to have "normal" romantic relationships out in the open for so long. . .that predetory behavior can be excused. Its complicated and I can't say I agree but its a lot to think about. I wonder how much probelm this will cause for the Met's endowment and membership--I am sure this is the first time many of the opera's audience even realized Levine was gay.
13
Predatory behaviour should NEVER be excused. And it has nothing to do with whether the predator is gay or straight--it is an abuse of power and that is the bottom line. To conflate being gay and predatory behaviour is wrong. Lots of gay men of Levine's age, whether openly "out" or not, lived and are living lives without abusing minors.
25
Being gay has absolutely nothing to do with this, marx. Being gay doesn't equate to being immoral and abusive, never has, never will. Think about that.
What's equally "saddening" is that you, and apparently many others, think this way. Actually it's really quite abominable.
As i understand it, it wasn't so much that he was gay, but that he went after underaged males. That's a different can of worms altogether. And no, it can't be excused.
1
Yes I'm one of the many who heard about his activities 35 years ago -albeit very far down the line. For the Met to say it only knew about just recently is beyond the pale . Yes Levine helped make the Met a gold-standard opera house but the Mgmt. both past and present has some explainin' to do.
64
As the article makes clear, they KNEW about it. They just chose not to DO anything about it.
7
I don't doubt his talent any more than I doubted the "secret". Like the church, Penn State and too many institutions the Met Opera looked the other way for decades. No one on the Board is shocked - they knew.
The times they are a changin'
61
His behavior has been not-so-secret for quite some time. Shame on the Met for not doing something earlier. A good friend of mine is unfortunate to know what he was capable of.
57
The MET, the music world and many in the general public have known about Mr. Levine’s preference for young men and boys for many, many years. It was also understood that whatever kind of sex there was, was consensual. All of us turned a blind eye because of the maestro’s talent and his predilections were sanctioned.
So, why now? We all knew. Just throw Peter Gelb and the board members under the bus for abandoning the greatest conductor that the MET ever had.
13
Oh, please. Any sexual contact with someone that powerful, that much older, is by definition coercive. Shame on Levine, Gelb, the entire Met staff. Disgusting.
31
LIttle Doom, you seem not to know the definition of "definition". You also seem not to be able to think outside black and white. I'm not defending Levine, but I am denouncing simplistic thinking.
4
"All of us," however, were powerless to be in a situation to insist Levine be replaced. The Met management and board were, which is why they're not being thrown "under the bus" if they are also duly removed (which I doubt will happen).
5
The artist & the man shouldn’t be confused. Wagner was despicable & admired by Hitler (how low can you go?) But when I walk down the street, I catch myself humming Meistersinger & Tristan. I can’t help it.
15
Absolutely right, Joseph Grieco. Wagner's despicability was well suited to Nazism. His music is still unmatched in its own way.
2
Wagner is long dead and not actively employed by the Met - you don't see a difference?
4
You probably would be humming a different tune if he had sexually abused your 16-year-old teenage son.
1
Two observations.
1) If the investigation found `credible' evidence of sexual abuse and harassment, then the firing was justified. Get lost.
2) Any artistic organization that `costs close to $300 million a year to run' should have its head examined.
14
Do you know how many people work at the Met, often from early in the morning to late at night? What do you know about artistic organizations? Apart from that, the Met is not "any artistic organization." Some artistic organizations are very small operations. And then there are artistic organizations like the Met which is a huge, world-renowned operation. Just one comparison: a Broadway show keeps the same stage set every day of the week. At the Met, sets have to be changed each day because productions change each night. That involves stage hands, carpenters, etcetera. Then there are singers (soloists and chorus members), orchestra members, ushers, security people, public relations people, human resources, artistic administration, development office, the people who handle there broadcasts, costume people, cleaners ...
47
The Met brings lots of tourism dollars to NYC. The impact of a greatly reduced Met on Lincoln Center and all the other connected performing arts would be devastating and create a very bad ripple effect.
11
There’s a quote: the only thing more expensive to conduct than opera is war.
9
perhaps it'd be easier to list the men in power who haven't abused, molested or raped anybody.
25
Sorry, that would be a longer list. Most people don't abuse, molest, or rape.
14
Men in any sort of power position, however small, seem to have a penchant for it
4
Art for art's sake but not for the sake of an evil predator.
12
What exactly does “sexually abusive and harassing conduct” mean?
Given the comments here, readers are interpreting it to mean everything from pedophilia (which is a crime in all jurisdictions and time periods that Levine acted) to causing mental distress (which is not a crime in any jurisdiction at any time that Levine acted), and so rumors are once again flying back and forth, all with at least a dusting of homophobia sprinkled on top, and printed in the NYT entirely unsubstantiated.
The NYT has to do more than just reprint the Met's press releases. Get a copy of the report and report on it.
21
I think when someone says, "____ happened to me," that is not an entirely unsubstantiated report.
8
Exactly. Alleged sexual experimentation among young people -- they were all young back then, including Levine. Some people didn't feel good about it, either at the time or later. So in the 1970s, in college, no one ever participated in anything that made them uncomfortable or did anything that they didn't feel great about later? I agree about the homophobic element. Look at Aaron Copland's personal life. Gay men weren't getting married and moving to the suburbs in those days.
10
Read the many news items, including here in the Times, about the young men who were forcibly abused, were so ashamed they hid what happened, or even complained and their complaints were brushed aside — or even Levine threatening them with professional suicide if they came forward.
9
The MET board is to blame. They should be litigated against by the state because they didn’t stop him from his abuses. Too many times money Trumps everything and organizations and administrations act to coverup criminal and immoral behavior. It is ludicrous that Levine encouraged a group masturbation game with his students. And it is reprehensible that he preyed upon young students.
29
Which Board? Current Board did what you suggest -- no institution stopped abused -- the old way was to protect the institution above all else. They only did it though cause now after Penn State, Spotlight and #MeToo there is no $ reason to stop them
1
What's "ludicrous" about that? It was reported in detail.
Reading in context, I believe Scientist chose the wrong word or phrasing, DW.
Levine's abuse of young men has been "public secret" within the NYC music scene for many decades. I'd heard about it back in the 1980s, from a friend who worked in arts management.
To all of the apologists writing comments in his "defense" (or in defense of the Met as an institution): It doesn't matter how great of a musician he was, or whether "times were different" back then; abusive behavior is (and was) abusive behavior. One would hope that you wouldn't use the same excuses to defend slavery, or the Holocaust, would you?
And just like we still hold war criminals accountable many decades after their crimes, even when they are old men, Levine's current age or health have no bearing on the need for society to hold him accountable for what he did.
Our current national reckoning with long-standing acceptance and hypocrisy about sexual and other abusive behaviors is long overdue. Yes, it's very painful for us all to watch its slow unfolding. But sometimes the pain of lancing a boil is necessary to prevent continued infection. Furthermore, the practice of confession is intended to be emotionally painful, because that's where the penitance (and the absolution) lie.
Unfortunately, justice will be meted out in seemingly uneven and perhaps unfair ways. But the fact that we don't catch all thieves, and that guilty tax cheats sometimes get off the hook, doesn't abrogate our collective responsibility to continue to seek justice.
132
Thank you. I hope you don’t mind if I use your words to defend other actions. You’re response is insightful and strong. Again, thank you.
10
You're comparing this situation with slavery, the Holocaust, and war criminals? This is what turns me off about 'the new reckoning '. The need to go to shocking extremes and define the perpetrator as evil incarnate.
7
The music world is small and one story can circulate and bounce back and forth and last for decades. Just because people have "heard" it doesn't mean they have any first-hand information. There is some first-hand information. The first-hand information I have read is from credible people, but from people who were above the age of consent and were not much younger than Levine, himself, at the time it occurred. Are we talking about awkward encounters - possibly awkward from both sides - and experimentation - or are we talking about something illegal?
10
Everyone in the opera world knew this was happening, for decades. How convenient for the MET to let Mr. Levine go now that he is 74 and in poor health. Why did they not have the courage to do something earlier? Before the #metoo movement? When it was inconvenient? Meanwhile, how about those victims? The young boys that suffered as a result of his notoriety?
46
I think one of the real tragedies here is that no one dealt with this when Levine was himself a teen and young man. Where were the responsible adults, the mentors, the administrators, the older musicians, the teachers? If, instead of coddling the wunderkind some of these people had shown a little tough love perhaps we wouldn't have to be dealing with this today.
If you're reading this and you haven't already read The Boston Globe's investigation into Levine's past I urge you to take a look. It is sad, shocking, disgusting, unseemly, tragic and it will turn your stomach.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/03/02/cleveland/cn2Sathz0EMJcdpYou...
34
I read it and didn't find it that persuasive. It focuses on the 1970s. All the participants were essentially in their 20s, including Levine. And half of it is about stories that circulated. And no one was compelled to participate in any of it.
7
I just read it too, and I disagree that no one was compelled to participate. Classical music is a highly competitive field, with many many talented and passionate young players and singers vying for a tiny tiny amount of professional opportunities. It is often entirely arbitrary who advances in the field and who doesn't, and the favor of a respected conductor is a massive break that many musicians would die to have. The article clearly outlines the powerful, controlling and charismatic hold Levine had on these kids. The mere fact that he was their conductor gave him power over them regardless of Levine's age. Levine took advantage of this power to cross sexual boundaries with his students. This was inappropriate and should not be excused.
12
That is absolutely ridiculous statement, Ellen, that "no one was compelled to participate in any of it". Stunningly tone deaf. And "essentially in their 20s"? There's a giant leap between the critical thinking and maturity of a 16 or 17 year old and a 20 year old (an age which, by the way, doesn't confer a whole lot more of those characteristics, but only makes them of legal age.)
There is also the power imbalance creating another just as giant elephant in the room. None of them had a crystal ball to see what their futures might bring if they refused to acquiesce to Levine. The age of a victim is entirely irrelevant when someone abuses their power to threaten someone's aspirations and livelihood.
1
Dear Jimmy:
Vive la Met!! Not the coward's Met, but the one you created.
Forever grateful, the (late) Gail, who loved you and would not
be afraid to say so today (after so many performances together),
and the tortured to still be around, Henno L.
5
It seems some of you missed the expose in The Boston Globe about the cult that Levine created. This was not a case of merely having sex with boys at the cusp of consenting age. He manipulated his "Levinites" into doing much more than sexual acts. He controlled what they ate, whom they interacted with, etc. to the point that he punished one young man for sneaking out to go to his own sister's wedding--all under the guise of achieving more emotive performances. This is an abuse of power that matches or exceeds Weinstein's. I urge you to find that article and read it.
36
I own a photograph with Leonard Bernstein surrounded by a number of his students and acolytes in the late 50's, all seriously looking over his shoulder at a score. James Levine and my conducting teacher (who shall remain unnamed here since his tales of the time still have punch) are in the picture. Few are the people who did not know of Mr. Levine's proclivities even then, as well as Mr. Bernstein's. Genius does not have a sexual preference nor is it a predictor of bad behavior. These were men of genius and that their personal behavior is only now grounds for castigation says more about us. (But then I never liked Levine in any capacity because of what I suspected.)
4
Don't All the Sad Young Men deserve to get of the blame? But if your dream is to be part of Maestro Jimmy Levine's productions, mentoring and sponsorship, some couldn't say no.
So many prominent people have a dark side which eventually gets revealed. How sad to have a great career totally eclipsed by scandal, but it seems to be the rule rather than the exception. We need more fanfare for the common man and less adulation for these flawed but talented people.
9
Finire cosi... Next: the Met itself. I cannot see how it could go on like usual. To be blunt: in my opinion the only way for the Met to survive it to allow external independent investigators to examine throroughly the entire period Levine was working at the house, while also focusing on the cover-up of any abuse perpetrated by any person in the institution. After comprehensive investigation and final public report, the Met needs to clise down and begin from scratch, as a modern, open, resopnsible and multi-faceted venue for music theatre, with a wide range of activities in performing and promoting opera. HD transmissions from the way too vast auditorium showcasing the big stars won't cut it anymore. Therefore: gut the entire building and leave only standing what is structurally necessary, and build s truly engaging and inviting 21st century cultural venue open to a vast public. Will such daring be possible in Manhattan? I doibt it. Hopefully, I am wrong. For Jim Levine it's over. For the Met, the tough times ahead have only begun.
7
@Edgar: Please step back from the brink of your personal-judgment abyss. Some of us enjoy the ballet, which, you may have forgotten, uses the Met as its venue part of the year.
But since you're in Boston, and given Levine's history with the BSO, shouldn't you be advocating to close down the BSO and gut their building and start over again in Boston? Maybe the BSO's arena can become a "cultural venue" for graffiti artists and hip-hop battles. Start your campaign on your home turf.
1
A high-powered law firm has already done that investigation and — surprise! — exonerated the Met from all responsibility.
I find the MET's investigation of Levine here as honest and timely as Inspector Renault's discovery that there was gambling going on in Rick's Cafe in Casablanca.
I first heard these rumors about Levine from aspiring opera singers who I had become friendly with in the late 1970s.
And yet the MET's upper management somehow never heard them. How convenient.
Levine wasn't some irreplaceable genius. As a lifelong classical collector, I doubt that I own more than two or three of his recordings - and I own thousands of concert and opera recordings. There were other conductors available to conduct the MET with different strengths but far less personal baggage.
The current and previous management of the Metropolitan Opera should all be ashamed - and should held every bit as personally responsible as the Bishops and Cardinals who protected pedophile priests.
120
This is so very very sad, for all concerned. I've heard the rumors for years, but kept going to the Met, of course, because of the music that will always be his legacy there--that will not ever go away. I just don't know what to think. Thanks, James Levine, for some of the finest musical memories of my life. I only wish you would have long ago sought help for your psychological problems so that you could have continued giving us the music. To his victims--I understand, and wish you the very best, hoping this absolutely justified and proper outcome will help you to heal.
9
Mr. Levine has brought me so much joy in my life. So have many of the victims.
Every aspect of this story makes me incredibly sad.
23
How and why "incredibly"? Incredibly" --lazy use of an all-purpose superlative. The root meaning of which is "unbelievable." Our sorrow about this unraveling of a magnificent career is certainly believable, and profound. Maestro Jimmy has had incredibly varied mastery and achievements as a musician and a mentor of artists.
1
I find the comments on this list that essentially throw the victims under the bus appalling. Maestro Levine deserves justice. But the destroyed lives and debilitating experiences of his victims are what is being addressed here. Hope they will eventually find peace and closure.
51
Now that Mr. Levine is old and in failing health and no longer the Rain Maker that he once was, the Met feels free to cut ties with him. Now we know what matters most to the Met. It's certainly not morals, ethics, or protecting young musicians.
179
The Met is a great institution that must now find a way to redeem itself through the power of music. Still, attention must be paid to the misdeeds of individuals and there has to be full transparency and accountability.
13
Shame on the Met.
32
Shame on Mr. Levine for abusing minor children.
13
The Met is merely an institution. If you really are offended by this, call out the names of those who turned a blind eye.
11
Which ones were minors?
1
A tale of two reports:
1) For Levine: the investigation had “uncovered credible evidence"...
2) For Met management and the board: “any claims or rumors ... are completely unsubstantiated.”
I wonder how the report made the distinction between the "credibility" of the claims against Levine vs. claims against Met management/board, and now "substantiated" the claims were against Levine vs. claims against Met management/board.
Most telling, the report does not say that there was NO "credible" claims against Met management/board, just that they were "unsubstantiated", which raises the question: how far did the report go to "substantiate" claims against Levine and did the report go far enough to try to "substantiate" claims against Met management/board?
How convenient, the buck stopped with James Levine, and not one person further.
Maybe James Levine should hire his own law firm and pay for his own investigation.
13
I wonder if he had the same behavior while in Boston, which by the way, people up here were really disappointed at his many absences, and terrible musical programs when he was at the BSO
21
Looks like a clown. Acts like a clown. Maybe always was a clown.
10
To call Jim Levine a clown is insultung to professional clowns. Whaterver he is or was, certsinly NOT a clown. That being said, this nation as a whole is in serious need of real clowns/jesters who can expose our own duplicities and idiodyncrazies and help us laugh st them. The country and nstion are so haywire that truth telling jesters would bring the necessary therapy. Jim Levine is a grest mudician who has sbused his immense power over young men. To end like this is terrible, albeit necessary. For the Met, things are far from over with Levine's termination. There is absolutely nothing left to laugh about. This whole saga is yet another mirror held up to all of us.
4
So eager to hate? So eager to believe the accusers, to throw this man out the window? Why is that? The Met, may I remind everyone, is not a church (although it may be experienced by some, myself included, as a "religion.") We go there to hear music. And I for one will NOT buy into the idea the terrible and strange stuff that went on cancels all that out. It just doesn't. Tony may hide the DVDs in the basement, but mine are on display where they've always been, RIGHT UP FRONT. And the memories, from the years long ago that I lived in NY and went to The Met at least once a week - I will ALWAYS remember those magical nights with great and undiluted joy, and I'm saying thank you, James Levine, thank you so very much! Hear me now, I'm saying it RIGHT OUT LOUD. Even if someone did terrible things, should we then ignore, condemn, or eradicate the GOOD THINGS that same person did or created? And finally, I find a lot of homophobia in the comments. Not surprising I guess since there's a lot of it about. But it's not OK. NOT OK. Let's put our daggers away, OK, People? They don't look good on us.
40
Bet you'd be singing a different tune if it had happened to your son. No-one is disputing his musical talent but that doesn't allow you to be a serial sexual predator. These accusations were investigated and found to be true.
You sound like the Hollywood folks that defended Roman Polanski drugging and raping a 16 year old girl. Don't hear much from them now, do you?
Talent doesn't excuse criminal behavior.
117
I'm not usually a quibbler, but Polanski's victim was 13.
7
You are absolutely right, thank you for being an adult !
5
Yet another case of "everybody knew..."
"Everybody has known about the whole pedophilia thing for a half a century, but whatev...not gonna let it spoil a night at "The Opera"".
You'd think it would be kind of hard for anyone with a conscience to walk into that cesspool now that the "secret" is out.
But then again, it seems that most people actually did know all along. So they gave him all those standing ovations and rousing curtain calls over all those decades with no compunction.
Ah..."culture".
25
The world of politics is disgusting and corrupt. Our representatives are paid for and owned by those who do not vote for them. Bad enough. Now we see daily the perfidy of so many men in positions of influence who demean and abuse those with no ability to push back, or who are disbelieved if they do try. What has happened to decency and ethics in our country? Why are we enduring this? And most important, how will it ever go away?
22
Human nature.
4
Decency and ethics in our country are just about the same as ever, The only difference is what is coming to light. That is the only way it will ever go away.
12
What makes you think such things were going on? Is it because they used to be conveniently swept under the rug when powerful men were involved?
Justice means treating people equally. The Met's decision on Jame Levine may be fair, but it is not just. There is evidence that Leonard Bernstein had sex with underage young men, but celebrations to honor his one-hundreth birthday later this year will be held at Tanglewood and many other venues. Closer to the headlines, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump sexually abused many women, which he is not being prosecuted or punished for. "You can get away with that, when you're a celebrity" he boasted. James Levine, along with Leonard Bernstein, is one of the greatest musicians in American history. He devoted years to the Met, working tirelessly with young singers, to make the organization the rival of La Scala and Covent Garden. He is in his mid-seventies now, suffering serious health problems. This was a time to temper justice with mercy, and the Met, its Board, and Peter Gelb failed. The Met will be fortunate if it can recover from this fiasco. Years from now, recordings of Mr. Levine's brilliant conducting will be played and appreciated when these prigs will be forgotten.
30
Gosh - his talent excuses all, is that it?
This news just in - victims of sexual harassment and abuse are not prigs, a term you choose to dismiss their claims. Claims that were found credible. Your brother/son/ child as victim might elicit a different response.
11
what prigs are you talking about, exactly? the ones who gave him
every benefit of the doubt for years
and finally when serious, substantiated
allegations came to light, hired a well
respected law firm to investigate them,
finally fired him?
his conduct was appalling, whatever his talent may have been. lam shocked
at the defense of this individual on the
part of so many commentators.
I can not imagine how you sleep ,
when his victims probably do not.
16
What about the young people Mr. Levine abused? Do they deserve to be treated with justice, or should their life-long pain and trauma be dismissed because of Mr. Levine's "brilliant conducting"? They are the ones who deserve justice.
18
This is no surprise and why did it take so long? This sort of thing happens when powerful men are in charge. It happened to me when I was in my late twenties. It involved a famous writer/playwright. I just said no. My mother raised me to say no and she trusted me to tell her when adults made sexually inappropriate advances. These men target weak vulnerable victims. I was not to be used.
36
Late 20s is not teens.
1
Power tends to corrupt-and absolute power corrupts absolutely- Lord Acton
13
I am sick to death of and repelled by comments such as "things were different in the 70s" and "it was a different time" - as though sexual abuse should be excused, EVER.
Ditto for excusing him because he was brilliant/an artist.
152
Nobody supports or condones sexual abuse whether it happened yesterday or 40 years ago. The issue is how does one define sexual abuse. Although today an adult having sex with any minor is understood as sexual abuse, as a minor cannot truly give consent, I don't think that 30 or 40 years ago or more many men, or society generally, understood the same actions as sexual abuse. The view, I believe, was that a minor (above say 15 or 16 years of age) was capable of giving consent. We now understand that this is wrong. But should the more restrictive rules of consent today apply to a more permissive era decades ago?
15
Yes, Mr. Schneiderman.
Abuse is abuse.
8
Was it illegal ? Yes? Then it was abuse with no consent.
1
What about the "pretender" in the white house. We have seen a whole lot of misogynists go down. Time for little hands. Hopefully Ms. Daniels will bring him down.
68
There are very few cultures on the Earth that treat their elders as poorly as Americans do now. I blame the lawyers. My Dad whipped me as a kid, but I learned and have never touch my child. I think the elderly need a #metoo. Stop throwing these people under the bus to advance your agenda.
7
I think you may be misplacing blame. It certainly is no one's "agenda" to be abused. Elders earn our respect by being wise, honest and kind. When they are unwise, dishonest and cruel they do not deserve our respect.
33
If this article is reporting the whole story it would seem he had a taste for teenaged boys who were close to or at the age of consent. While it certainly sounds as if he abused the power his position and talent bestowed upon him, it's hard not to have sympathy for any gay man brought up before the present era. The shame and self-loathing so many gay people grew up with in the Boys In The Band era, and earlier, cannot be fully understood today. It's not at all surprising that his sexuality became distorted, and possibly predatory, growing up in that era when to be both gay and emotionally healthy was very difficult to achieve.
33
You've gotta be kidding.
26
Really? We let him off the hook for abusing underage teenage boys? So, he's emotionally sick? Mentally has problems? Either he knew what he was doing or he didnt, but you can't have it both ways.
14
I do remember reading in a bio of a conductor that the attitude was that a gay man would. Or be able to conduct a major American orchestra because the musicians would never respect him. It was very nice to see Maestro Nezet-Seguin come to Philly for his intro tour with his parents and his husband. It is a much healthier time.
Having been a teacher for 37 years I know that it has never been right for a teacher or boss to prey on teenagers, students or subordinates, whether they are male or female. For an ordinary person without Levine's talent and the protection of wealthy people in an organization like the Met, or the Montreal and Philly Orchestras, as innthe case of Dutoit, they would be long gone and facing legal difficulties.
9
Why do they do that ?
How much was it worth now at this age falling for grace.
2
Because those of us having to be abused by him need some closure.
48
B. Sharp:
There is an article in the NYTimes today about a Nazi in the SS who worked for Auschwitz, and was tried for crimes at the end of his life. He just died at 96. Do you think that those who lost their parents, aunts, uncles, don't want that justice to take place, at any age? Those who were abused deserve justice, whatever the age.
15
Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems to me that B. Sharp was wondering why Mr. Levine engaged in such risky behavior when he knew it could damage his career. I don't think he was objecting to those who accuse him.
4
I understand the severity of these behaviors, however, I also recognize that a large number of gifted or otherwise valuably talented people have psychological, behavioral or other socially unacceptable traits. History is full of great men and great women and their oversized problems.
We would be wise to keep in mind the contributions these flawed people have made to culture, science, and even civilization. Pretending that we can easily shun them is a mistake, everything has a price. I'll leave it to others to consider that set of problems. I'm much more concerned about civilization overall.
14
Of really? Imagine what the abused, silenced, artists could have contributed if they had been required to sexually service this monster.
27
nope. the only way things change is if there are consequences to actions and people are held responsible for abuses of power. who knows what incredible art or culture or science we never got to experience because people were so traumatized and violated.
44
The Met is disingenuous: they’ve apparently known about Mr. Levine’s abusive behavior (no one has yet said the “P” word) for years but ignored because he was such a valuable asset. Now that he’s physically incapable of conducting and even more valuable assets are complaining, the Met is finally willing to fire him. During the mid-1980's a voice coach, who had been an intern at the Met, told me it was widely known Levine was an abuser. She stated there were incidents where the parents suddenly removed their son and the Met management had to negotiate for their silence. Call it hearsay, but that was over 30 years ago and I’ve often wondered when the Met would finally do the right thing.
113
"Widely known" is not evidence.
I don’t believe the “P” word applies legally.
"I never lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor."
If people with certain urges tend to mistake
the lack of immediate resistance or prompt refusal
on the part of their 'victims' for consent, they will,
of course, hardly ever think they did anything wrong.
I guess, there needs to be more civil courage in the world,
and Einstein comes to mind:
"The world is a dangerous place to live,
not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
I don't mean to say that the [mis]conductor is an evil man.
But he should have been way more self-critical and self-controlled.
Does he have the faintest idea of what he put his 'victims' through?
At least we have reached a point by now
where these matters can be publicly addressed.
Hopefully this openness will help close old sores.
24
People with clinical mania (and I suspect that Levine had it) are frequently idealistic in the abstract but cannot empathize one on one with other individuals, especially if it gets in the way of their own agenda.
I am a great admirer of Einstein. Being a pacifist he spoke out against war before WWI. He went on to speak out against fascism in Germany and helped many Jews, esp fellow scientists, escape from Germany. And that's the short list. He was a humble, kind and wise man.
He was also known for his serial infidelities. A colleague of his said his
presence (for women) was like iron filings to a magnet! He was not abusive But his liaisons were casual and numerous. Women pursued him to the point of annoyance!
None of this diminishes him my eyes. But to many Americans to whom 'monogamy is the only way', it may.
I lived in Cleveland at the time Levine was pushed out. It is was common knowledge as to the reason. The Met board either was grossly negligent in performing its oversight duties or chose not to know about Levine's behavior. In either case, the board members should at least have given the man, who gave us some masterful music, a graceful exit given the members' obvious complicity.
22
Their "complicity" excuses nothing on his part. He has been rewarded aplenty for his skill and art. Which leaves his predation on young people and his possible harms to their minds, hearts, lives and careers to account for. The Board has its own culpability, perhaps, which diminishes his not one whit.
43
Fire the Board.
39
Pushed out? I was a college student in Cleveland then as well. I listened to him rehearse the Cleveland Institute of Music orchestra and also attended the rehearsals of a wonderful concert performance he conducted of Die Zauberflote with major singers. Everyone understood that Levine was a major talent and he got the plum job he deserved when he was named principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in 1972 at the age of 29.
4
The Met knew about Jimmy's behavior, but he is already retired. What is the point of this? Is it to allow the Met to save having to pay him what must be a substantial pension? As Irate citizen just pointed out, in another era the threshold might have been lower for predation on younger musicians by mentors, but we dealt with it. To remove his recordings from the building? To wreck an already wrecked monumental contributor to American and international arts? Has everyone removed the Wagner recordings from their libraries? No. He's justly celebrated as a towering composer despite being an anti-Semite. And Levine is justly celebrated as an incomparable conductor who was responsible for much of the Met's success. It seems to me the Met should bear the responsibility on this one.
33
Levine alone bears the responsibility for his sexual assaults, and make no mistake, don’t soften it, they were assaults. And the Met and other organizations enabled it. But don’t confuse the order of responsibility.
Individuals can decide whether to still listen to his recordings. People have had to do the same with the Cosby Show. Knowing that behind the scenes Levine was fiddling with kiddies may be enough to turn some people off to him. What should have happened is he never should have been allowed to advance as far as he did without facing punishment. And someone else of great talent would have stepped in at the Met. And then we’d have fewer molested children, and different recordings. And the world would be ever so slightly better.
20
As early as the 1970's, I heard many rumors of Jimmy Levine's activities. That was the '70's and we never thought much about it. It was just the way it was. His crime was using his exalted position as a power tool over young singers, most, if not all of whom were over 18, but naive and willing to do whatever it took to "get the part."
6
So I guess you're OK then with extortion by criminal gangs, who demand payment for "protection" or they will torch your business. After all, they're of legal age and just going along to get ahead; it's completely voluntary.
Sheesh.
29
He could give them a chance to succeed on their merits in arts they had given their all, or kill their careers. That was his bait and threat to innocents over whom he had professional power of great suasion. To satisfy his ugly lust. He is a user, an extortionist, and a predator. And you would blame those he hurt for his sins against them. Pretty low, I'd say.
39
I think you get the prize for worst analogy ever. Sheesh.
4
This article inadvertently highlights another structural problem in the arts:
"He made the Met’s orchestra into one of the finest in the world..."
No, the players in the Met's orchestra did that. We need to stop putting individuals like Mr. Levine on pedestals and get over the tendency to make and worship superstars, to the point where horrible acts by such individuals get ignored. Mr. Levine was never indispensable.
Just because the media only has room for a few superstars at the top of their field doesn't mean there aren't people of equal talent out there, equally worth hearing. We need to stop falling for hierarchical, patriarchal myth-making that makes power dynamics like those that benefited Mr. Levine possible.
352
Respectfully disagree. He's a musical genius. He brought joy to millions and, if the stories are true, great pain to many young people who came under his power.
6
I agree with you that the behavior is unacceptable, I disagree with you about people like Levine being a-dime-a-dozen, they simply are not.
18
For some of us who attended the Met during the ten-or-so years preceding Levine's tenure - we can tell you that there were nights spent sitting in the audience at the opera which required the listener to suspend their credibility regarding some of the sounds which were emanating from that orchestra pit -
Say what you will about Levine's abhorrent behavior - but he learned his craft - and developed the "sound" in his ear - from being around the Cleveland Orchestra during the tenure of George Szell -- a period, during which many people will tell you, produced the greatest symphonic ensemble this country has ever known --
Knowing nothing about Levine's sexual misconducts - when he took over the MET, some of us were giddy with glee because we knew he would not tolerate the sloppy playing of the orchestra -- and sure enough - he did turn it into one of the finest orchestral ensembles in the country -- to the point where they could put that orchestra on the stage of Carnegie Hall -- something which would have been virtually unthinkable in the era proceeding Levine --
There is no excuse for his horrible transgressions -- but his musical accomplishments do - and always will - speak for themselves...
26
I have been hearing these allegations for the last decade at least. They have circulated backstage at the Met for years, generally taking the form of Mr. Levine's behavior towards children being swept under the rug by way of pay-offs to families. There are those in the Met who have kept their children from coming backstage for fear that Mr. Levine will go after them. Given that these allegations seem to be true, it's about time the Met did what they should have done long ago and fired him.
34
So a gay, closeted man in 1968 had consensual masturbation with a 16 year old, and therefore fifty years later he will attack children physically backstage while suffering from Parkinson's? What a leap.
There's a lot more subtlety to the world, to sexuality, and to history. But being gay is not being a pedophile. Roy Moore like his teenagers even younger.
To vandalfan
I agree.
We can't change the past and to judge Levine without at least trying to understand the man is wrong.
I will not judge him because in some ways he was also a victim.
I believe the board if they knew what was happening possibly did not act because they were respecting Levine's right to privacy and to lead a life that included having relations with men of the same sex and were protecting him from people who were anti gay.
I payoffs to families were made, I'm sure those families are reading this article and the comment section. Let one of them - even anonymously - come forward on this comment page to confirm that such a payment occurred.
For over 35+ years this mans heinous acts of sexual abuse were simply brushed under the carpet by The Metropolitan Opera.
The irreparable damaged Mr. Levine's sexual appetite caused these victims is such a grievous tragedy few ever recoup from.
You will never convince me that a majority of this Met Club staff were not aware of such allegations.
"The only thing more shocking than the truth are the lies people tell to cover it up."
140
My heart and sympathy goes out to those who were abused by Mr. Levine, but especially those who were teenagers in the 1980s, as I was. I have loved classical music from a young age, and I can not imagine how devastating it would be for a young artist to be preyed upon by someone of such stature and respect in the world of classical music. Had it been me it may have permanently destroyed my love and passion for the music, forever associating it with the sexual abuse by a leader in a young the field. For those who had already dedicated a large portion of their Iives to classical music, the discovery of this predator at the very heart and zenith of the field must have caused them to question their lives and careers in the field. We may never know of what talent and beauty was lost from Mr. Levine’s sexual assaults. Just as many other institutions have done, the Met must establish clear guidelines, policies and procedures for dealing with sexual harassment or exploitation when it occurs. Otherwise, nothing will have really changed.
50
An organization can effect all the guidelines it wants to, but they won't make a bit of difference if, as so often happens, they're ignored by management.
8
I first worked at the MET in 1987 & it was pretty clear to me that these things about Maestro Levine were well known within the MET circles. I had heard about several prominent people paying off people to keep him from being arrested. I knew about a male "inner circle" group where he would hold court & be the King & father figure. I know some guys carefully withdrew from Levine's court because he intruded on their personal lives. In spite of the tragedy of it all, I cherished my years working at the MET and in the company of Maestro Levine and other great artists. I have to say that I only experienced him being a gentleman and always very nice to the orchestra, chorus & soloists. I never witnessed him being a bully or nasty like some conductors can be. It was exciting to be there. Sad that he has this tragic flaw and to end a brilliant career in such a way.
44
"I have to say that I only experienced him being a gentleman and always very nice to the orchestra, chorus & soloists. I never witnessed him being a bully or nasty."
Agreed.
But those he victimized certainly were witness to his criminal and predatory behavior.
1
I can only hope that other men are paying attention.
Commit criminal actions and sooner or later, it will bring you down.
The Institutions that once protected acts no longer can. They have lost their ability to cloak their vaunted members.... simply because they protected too many in the past.
Whether it is the Catholic Church or the performing arts, the world has grown tired of institutions that protect the criminal and coddle full grown men from charges.
Ditto for women, too.... but like gun-killing sprees, it's not the women who are famous for this.
If you haven't - don't.
If you have - throw yourself on the mercy of the Court.
28
Sadly, there is no court, judge or jury to allot mercy or justice. Or most importantly, a sworn oath.
2
Prove it in a court of Law,
1
What a pity! Not only because a brilliant mind and superb artist ends a career in this mode, but because now all -friends, enemies, fans, etc.- around him lift the accusatory finger, all moralists angels. My grandma used to say 'del arbol caido todos hacen lena' . Here we go again...
6
Then we are given to know that famous predators will never lack for sympathy while you are around, nor their victims a blamed, all in the name of virtue. It doesn't fool me.
13
From the fallen tree, everyone makes firewood.
6
His brilliance is not what's most important here, neither is the timing except to castigate those at the Met who were complicit, actively and passively, for decades.
Levine himself is a victim only of his own corruption. Because the rest of us aren't perfect, or because of his age and infirmity, the heinous abuse of his power should continue to be overlooked? This is not a case of being "kicked while one is down".
One can certainly feel sad that he has Parkinson's, it's a terrible disease which he will surely succumb to though not his fault, and he still, as of now, has the means to see himself out in care and comfort. One can also feel sad that an illustrious career will end on this sorry note, but that is no one else's doing but his own.
1
Mr. Levine's denials ring as hollow as Donald Trump's. His "taste" for underage boys was an open secret for decades and management paid to cover up more than one scandal. The Met is a very big organization and all the way back to, I believe, the '70's pretty much everyone there knew it. Certainly the various technical unions there knew it, and clearly so did the orchestra.
I have been unable to listen to any recording he has made for many years because of this.
Levine is lying. The Met org is lying. They knew about him, but couldn't look the other way any longer.
I think of all the young men and boys he so viciously hurt out of his pure selfishness. I save all my kind thoughts for them, and none for Levine.
261
"the greatest American conductor since Leonard Bernstein" ? Levine was world-class, while Bernstein's conducting was an obscenity (as was his conduct -- Lenny wouldn't have survived the current cultural moment, either)
15
The Vienna Philharmonic, surely a "world class" institution, would not have welcomed Bernstein if they had thought his conducting was an "obscenity"--a pretty vile word to back up your personal preferences in art.
15
Last I checked, Sinopoli conducted Vienna too. They are not magically immune from the occasional hack. Bernstein was narcissism personified, a grotesque perversion of the self-sacrifice and self-abnegation required of a classical artist.
Look, Levine was clearly monstrous, AND he was also our country's greatest conductor, period. It intensifies the tragedy. To limit his greatness to "since Bernstein" is to rob him of twenty more decades' credit.
I thought Bernstein deserved being called great even if the only thing he was being praised for was composing the music for West side story.
3
Librettists need to get to work on this tragedy. Sadly, Levine will not be around to conduct the score.
9
I had a client in the building where he lives. Back in 1981 he told me about Mr. Levine. But we have to keep in mind that it was a different time and that kind of behaviour was grudgingly accepted by Arts organizations. And then Mr. Levine became a beloved institution and could sell out a performance just by himself at the Met and also Carnegie Hall. Remember the tributes and get well wishes, even in this paper when his Parkinson's was discovered?
This is not to excuse the Met board, but they should have retired him much earlier. But then again, like with the Olympic scandal, board members tend to have tin ears.
51
"Grudgingly accepted"?? TIME'S UP!!
15
I would be good if we started teaching our children that, because they know the difference between right and wrong, if they find themselves in a position of power they must still never blur the line between the two by imposing their will to do wrong on other people. President Trump was never taught that ("I can do whatever I want . . . ") and it appears that Mr. Levine wasn't either.
It's a disgusting state of affairs when men like these indulge their sick fantasies and are never stopped until the knowledge of what they have done becomes public, and even that is no guarantee.
27
While not entirely new information, this account nonetheless throws in to sharper relief that the current regime at the Met was indeed informed about these highly credible accusations, fairly recently, and by the police no less, and et choose not to act while citing the extremely soft 'let's see what the investigation comes up with' line of defense. Real mushball stuff. And in the context of the #MeToo movement, maybe one of the weaker responses.
Of even great confusion is why Levine was even around these past few years. All that sturm und drang about his health, his on-again, off-again return, in a wheelchair, those wheezy performances, the singers complaining
But management - again, the current regime - was sucked in to that 'you can treat a legend that way' line of response and now has serious questions to answer. Otherwise, we'd be dealing with a past-tense story which, while dreadful, would not have stung the institution nearly as much.
And to think they could've started the Nezet Seguin era just that much sooner.
21
Mr. Levine's abuse and harassment will be in the leading line in his New York Times obituary. Levine's behavior was widely rumored since the 1980s, yet ignored by decades of trustees at Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera.
79
If the Met didn't know of Levine's predilections, they were the only ones in the classical music world. My singing teacher here in the Bay Area, who has connections to the music department at Stanford University, mentioned them to me several years ago.
107
Everyone knew. Welcome to our world.
32
Ex-opera singer friends of mine told me about him several years ago at a party. One has to wonder who DIDN'T know about him!?? Worst of all, are the parents who looked the other way, in hopes that their child would rise to stardom. Sick.
31
I am saddened. He is a great musician. It seems he was personally repeatedly a bad person, and the organization protected him. He has to go.
Wagner also was a great musician, but in several ways a very bad person. Because he is long dead I do not feel bad about listening to his works.
Let us not forget that Trump misbehaves more often than Levine did. Let us resolve that Trump and politicians like him lose their jobs.
39
Clinton misbehaved as well.
He can't lose his job but you can speak out against what he did in the same way
people are now talking about James Levine.
We should not forget what Trump has done but that should also go for Clinton.
If Trump should lose his job than Clinton should lose his reputation.
These accusations have been known in the general public for decades. It is inconceivable that The Met was unaware.
167
Rumors about Mr. Levine are widely-known and long-running. I think that the Met's current dwindling audience and donors stem from insulting productions, like the latest "Ring" cycle and "Der Rosenkavalier". If you offer idiotic (and expensive) versions of great operas, don't expect crowds and checks to pour in.
Thank you.
46
Well, maestro, things have changed haven't them?
7
All that cruelty to young musical hopefuls, and a bold-faced liar as well. I wonder how Levine lives with himself.
50
Do you have any reason to believe these young musical hopefuls were stopped from attaining their potential because of the cruelty that is claimed.
And you wonder why so many people don't trust New Yorkers? You folks lionized this creep, and the Boston Symphony was dumb enough to take him, too. As a frequent BSO concert goer, I can tell you he was often a no-show. I hope he's shunned...better than prison for such an egomaniac.
21
The management of Levine's health problems which led to him being a "no-show" while in Boston certainly deserves some honest appraisal, however, it really is not what this discussion is about. I had many issues and disappointments with Levine's tenure in Boston, but one thing is undeniable. He took the Boston Symphony, an orchestra that was mired in torpor, and in short order had it playing, once again, like the great orchestra it is. He may be a horrible human being, but it is a lie to deny the fact that he has also been a great musician.
As for your knock on New Yorkers that is totally out of line. We've had more than our share of creeps right here in Boston and many of them have had far fewer redeeming qualities than Levine. I doubt that there is a city or company or organization in the world that hasn't harbored a creep or two at some time. So be careful when condemning an entire city unless you like having your own faults thrown right back into your face.
25
If you think an arts organization's looking the other way in such behavior is unique to New York, you need to read the Times and other newspapers more often.
6
Cheap shot, decades late.
The Met's board needs to be investigated and charged appropriately.
Another example of a privileged few, with wealth and connections, no backbone.
59
The action the Met's board took were not justified when there was no need to take those actions.
What was the reason to act now.
Levine was in no condition to take advantage of anyone and you can't change the past.
If they thought he did anything illegal they should have notified the police and let them investigate and determine if a crime had been committed.
The board didn't care about the facts.
They cared about their reputation.
The me too movement is not about justice.
It's about power and both sides have abused the power they have.
1
As a long-time admirer of Maestro Levine, it must be said—unequivocally—that the coda of his career on the podium will now—and forevermore—be judged harshly. The Cincinnati prodigy became a great conductor—that is beyond dispute—but now, how does one—can one—enjoy all his incomparably splendid performances and recordings without thinking about all the evil that hid behind the smile; the gracious interviews; the outreach to communities that had no experience with the operatic and symphonic literature?
When one has read through all the confessions of remorse and regrets; of shame and self-loathing from his victims of so long ago, one loses faith in institutions and in individuals who extend one hand full of gifted promises while, with the other, concealing a diabolical malevolence that cancels out any artistic greatness because of sordid acts that savaged another’s soul.
I hope—with all my heart—that those who suffered terribly under both the iron will of a talented conductor and his evil manipulation of trusting talents in the early stages of their careers will find some kind of peace and assuredness that they were not to blame.
As for James Levine, I hope, too, that he will find a peace—one that he seemingly went out of his way to deny others, all in the service—not of the Muse—but of himself.
72
How was Levine being evil.
Ignoring Chris Brown even when conducting him did not destroy his carrier.
I can understand how Mr. Lestock felt pain the night he was abused but to state he has carried that pain around with him all these years is believable.
Why would Ashok Pai bring charges against Levine when he knew the state's age of consent was 16 at the time and he was 16.
It is easy to condemn when you only listen to one side.
We should not condemn Levine without giving him a trial in a court of law where charges can be made that are based on the actual law and not on opinion on what the law is his rights can be upheld and he can be given an opportunity to defend himself.
As with the fascist collaborator Ezra Pound, the Hitler progenitor Richard Wagner, or the serial abuser of women Pablo Picasso, we admire the art, and not the artist.
Great art transcends human fallibility, without justifying the sometimes deplorable behavior resulting from such fallibility.
in"The Third Man", the character Harry Lyme may have been right about the contrast between the Swiss and the Medicis, but there was no sympathy for his using this observation in defense of atrocities committed for money.
He deserved his comeuppance. So does Levine.
1
Since this was known for decades, the Met is also disgraced. That they elevated Levine's talent and ignored his his behavior, is shameful. Let them feel the consequences and scramble for funding. There comes a time when donors have to take a moral stance.
Some people say about Trump, "What do his sexual peccadillos have to do with politics?" How does that hurt our country? It matters who people are. Character is important, especially when the perpetrator is in a position of power. Imagine how many people Levine and Trump have damaged as they go about their business, taking what they want with no regard as to the consequences for the people they abuse. And, then they compound the damage by making an accuser out to be a liar. These are truly bad people.
291
Personally I do not believe Levine did anything illegal but I can understand if proven how it can be perceived that way.
We know Trump is a disgusting person but even if all the accusations that are being made can be proven he did nothing that anyone can perceive as being criminal.
Before Trump was elected most of the people who voted for him had knowledge of the accusations that were being made and they did not care.
That was their right.
The same can be said about Clinton the second time he was elected.
You are against Trump but probably not against Clinton so you selectively judge Trump because of your hatred for the man but don't judge Clinton in the same way.
How can you justify this.
Stop this.
There are no do overs.
Trump is President and to impeach him because he did inappropriate things and lied about it is just as wrong now as it was wrong when it was being done with Clinton who was just as guilty.
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We also “elevated” and celebrated the man I voted for—Bill Clinton. The damage that long term series of scandals did to girls and women is incalculable. It also gave a green light to future politicians who thought it might work for them.
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PLEASE try to keep off-topic political opinions out of this, unless you want someone to drag the Clintons into the discussion. Neither they nor Mr. Trump have ANYTHING to do with the moral failings of Mr. Levine or the Metropolitan Opera.
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I first heard of Mr. Levine's misadventures from an administrator at the Met in 1989. Of course, I found it hard to believe although the woman who told me had no grudge against him. It just seemed to be common knowledge. I felt that if the stories were true then the Met management would do something about it. Well 29 years later, at the end of his career and in the middle of his health problems, the Met has done something. They have buried an illustrious but dead career. The Met has a lot of hard questions to answer.
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I remember a tiny article, about 8 lines long at the end of a column, that
appeared not that long after Levine had come to the Met. He had been picked up in Central Park one night. I kept looking to see what was going to happen. The next thing that happened was that Levine began appearing in public with a woman billed as his girl friend. Then you heard that she had moved in with him. The Met has some creative public relations people, along with a cooperative lawyer who conveniently cleared them of any wrong doing.
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The Met took too long to act, which made this tragedy worse. Evan worse than death for Maestro Jimmy. A great artist, teacher, and inspiration for countless musicians and singers,
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@ Bashh - correct! They totally gave him a "beard". I remember this very well. Perhaps if they had let him be openly gay, he wouldn't have had to abuse his underlings.
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Breaking news? In the opera world Levine's conduct has been common knowledge for years, if not decades.
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Exactly. I heard about it when I was still a music student in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And then heard far more “details” when I was in Lake Forest, IL and frequented Ravinia in the late 1980s.
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Now it's time to apply the same standard to Donald Trump. He more than deserves to lose his job. We are a nation of total hypocrites if we don't act!
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These sins are known as “OK Sins” when Republicans commit them. It’s OK for No 45 to tell outrageous lies, cheat on his wives, brag about committing sexual assault, to commit adultery, fraud, hide his tax returns, rob the poor to give to the rich, and to incite violence at his preposterous rallies, because “God” is Republican. The Ten Commandments don’t apply to Republicans and nor does a single word uttered by Jesus of Nazareth. I have nothing to go on of course, apart from their behaviour, manifest daily.
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Alas "we" are a nation of total hypocrites, at least those running it.
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His Gotterdammerung is hopefully ahead - but Ivanka will not be singing Brunhilde.
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This abysmal behavior has been ongoing for 35 some odd years before it was discovered by the Met? Anything to protect rainmaker. As for those abused, let's just consider them collateral damage.
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Very similar situation to USA Gymnastics and MSU - protecting the brand is all that matters, no matter what happens. Disgusting.
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They also excused his tremors (from Parkinson's). Musicians complained that they couldn't follow the music when he was conducting (especially once he had to conduct sitting down) and the Met basically said "deal with it".
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Not similar.
A 12 year old can not give consent.
a 16 year old can.
One should be a crime and the other not.
What a cheap and cowardly way for the opera company to confront the problem of Mr. Levine's well known affinity! By simply firing Levine, the Metropolitan Opera gets to cast all the blame on him, while avoiding acknowledging its own role of having spent decades turning a blind eye.
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I agree with you 100%.
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"Affinity"??
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Absolutely. Levines proclivities have been well-known for decades. And now the Met is saying, We are shocked, shocked, shocked, to learn that gambling is going on in this fine establishment? What hypocrites. It was all good as long as no-one complained about it, or as long as the complainints were unimportant enough to ignore. Now that they can't be ignored any longer, Levine is the fall guy and the Met is blameless? What hypocrites.
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Its only been 50 years since the event took place...
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You mean the *first* events.
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“any claims or rumors that members of the Met’s management or its board of directors engaged in a cover-up of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated.” [today's announcement]
“Each time, the Met press office would tirelessly point out the cyclical nature of the gossip and the complete lack of substance” [Johanna Fiedler in 2001]
There you go again....
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With the allegations against James Levine and Peter Martins to be deemed credible enough for their departures, Lincoln Center is not immune and industry, sports and the arts can no longer be surprised with future allegations coming in the months and years ahead.
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Is there no statute of limitations?
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Is there no end to the number of abusive men?
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Not in this world.
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That question should be answered by those that were abused by Mr. Levine.
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