James Levine, who polished the New York Metropolitan Opera into a world-renowned institution for four decades as a director and director until he was fired for sexual harassment, has died. He was 77. He died on March 9 in Palm Springs, California, according to the New York Times, citing Dr. Len Horovitz, his physician. Levine’s health problems had included Parkinson’s disease.
An accomplished child on the piano, Levine became an ambassador for opera in the U.S. and was often compared to another American – born conductor, Leonard Bernstein, who died in 1990.
His marathon tenure at the Met elevated the opera company to world elite levels. He began directing “Tosca” in 1971 and became chief executive in 1973, musical director in 1976 and the company’s first ever artistic director in 1986. He directed more than 2,500 a performance of 85 different operas.
The Met had been “going through seasons of painful turmoil” before Levine became principal conductor in 1973, and “certainly moved to bring the orchestra and chorus back to ensembles. with proud energy, ”Joseph Horowitz wrote in his 2005 book,“ Classical Music in America: A History of its Origins. ”
World Tours
Levine founded the “Metropolitan Opera Presents” television show for the Public Broadcasting System, established the Met Young Artists Development Program and, in 1991, began conducting the Met orchestra on world tours.
His reputation plummeted in late 2017 when Leropine was stopped by Metropolitan Opera amid allegations of sexual abuse. The allegations were investigated by an outside law firm, which Levine called “baseless.” He was fired in March 2018 for “sexual misconduct and harassment behavior,” according to a statement from the opera company.
He made his final performance in the concert pit as the Met’s musical director in May 2016. Due to his reliance on a motorized wheelchair, he was unable to do so from the a hole to the stage for the long shouting of the audience, the New York Times reported.
His health issues over the years included chronic back pain from spinal stenosis, which tightens the spinal cord. In September 2011, the Met reported that Levine suffered damage to one of his vertebrae in a fall and withdrew from ceremonies.
Boston Symphony
Beginning in 2004, while still conducting the Met, Levine assumed the additional responsibilities of music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He retired in 2011 as his health problems worsened.
He was known to have little time for, or interest in, anything non-musical, using his rare vacation to explore new scores.
“For me, music is like eating, breathing or sleeping,” he said in an interview for a 1983 magazine image that landed him on the cover of Time as “America’s Top Maestro.”
Instantly recognizable for the halo of his frizzy hair, Levine was nonetheless in control and to a lesser extent in his movements as a director, serving up any of the big moves that can grab the audience’s attention turn from the music to the master.
“I started out very mobile, but I tried to put myself into action in the performance,” Levine said in a 2005 interview with National Public Radio. “I don’t want the audience to go through the medium of explaining what the piece is about, in particular, with his gesture. ”
Translation controversy
As opera companies began offering real-time streaming translations of non-English operas, Levine famously said in 1985 that the Met would introduce that technology “over my dead body. ”
A decade later, he gave his grim blessing when the Met introduced a translation system that uses individual seat screens that can be turned on or off. He said in a 1998 biography interview that the “immobile and private” seating system was far superior to the supertitles that some companies are launching on a screen above the stage.
James Lawrence Levine – the name with “divine” verses – was born June 23, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, the oldest of three children in a family with a musical disposition. His father, Larry, led large bands in the 1930s before entering his family’s textile business. His mother, Helen, was once an actress on Broadway.
Prodigy children
Levine showed skill at the piano at 2 and began lessons at 4. Within a few years he was showcasing his talents for Thor Johnson, director of the Cincinnati Symphony, with whom Levine made his debut at 10 .
Beginning in 1957, he spent 14 summers studying and performing at the Aspen Festival and School of Music in Colorado.
After graduating from high school in 1961, Levine moved to New York City to enroll full-time at the Juilliard School, where he studied behavior.
George Szell, conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, saw Levine work in 1964 and invited him to become deputy conductor in Cleveland, where Levine worked until 1970.
He was musical director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, from 1973 to 1993, principal conductor of Munich Philharmonic from 1999 to 2004, and director of the Swiss – based UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra since its inception in 2000.
He has been guest conductor of major orchestras around the world and has also made piano recitals.
When he followed Seiji Ozawa in Boston, he became the 14th musical director in the 125-year history of that orchestra, the first American-born. The posting meant that Levine also directed the annual music festival at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony in the Berkshires. Levine’s career at the Met returned to music director, from art director, to free up time for his work in Boston. Levine never married.
This story was published from a wire group group with no text changes. Only the headline has changed.