James Levine, acclaimed Metropolitan Opera conductor who faced abuse allegations, dies at 77
Source: Washington Post
Obituaries
James Levine, acclaimed Metropolitan Opera conductor who faced abuse allegations, dies at 77
By Tim Page
March 17, 2021 at 1:06 p.m. EDT
James Levine, a conductor whose musical versatility and vitality — and near-infallible knowledge of the works he interpreted — made him one of the world’s most acclaimed orchestra leaders but whose career ended amid accusations of sexual abuse, died March 9 at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 77. ... Len Horovitz, his personal physician, confirmed the death but did not disclose the immediate cause.
Mr. Levine had been in precarious health for more than a decade, canceling many of his performances after 2008 and undergoing spinal surgery. Even when conducting from a wheelchair, he remained a vigorous and indefatigable presence in American cultural life far beyond the rarefied opera world — widely considered the country’s most influential conductor since Leonard Bernstein.
That all changed in December 2017, when the Metropolitan Opera suspended all association with Mr. Levine, after three men came forward with accusations that he had abused them sexually decades before, when they were in their teens.
The accusations of misconduct went back to 1968 and had been the subject of talk in music circles since the mid-1970s. Several media organizations had looked into the rumors over the years, but they had been impossible to confirm. However, amid a national reckoning over how powerful men in many fields — including the arts, politics and business — have abused younger men and women, Mr. Levine was the subject of renewed attention. In a statement, he called the allegations “unfounded” and said, “As anyone who truly knows me will attest, I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor.”
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/james-levine-dead/2021/03/17/441ac280-aee8-11e3-9627-c65021d6d572_story.html
Tim Page left the Washington Post years ago. This obit has been in the can for a long time.
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