James Levine was not a great man with a single tragic flaw.
He was an almost completely horrible person, with a single, tragic talent.
Ever since I heard the news, I’ve had a voice on one shoulder screaming “don’t write about James Levine.” And on the other shoulder, another voice is saying “write about James Levine.”
First, I don’t want to hurt or offend the many dear friends and colleagues close to me who admired him. Cincinnati, which is like a musical second home to me, was Levine’s home town. His mentor was the first violinist in the LaSalle Quartet, Walter Levin – I studied with the quartet’s second violinist and cellist. Many people I love and admire loved and respected Levine. I am sorry if this post causes them hurt or offence.
But, here I am, writing about James Levine.
Part One – “Stories about James Levine”
Everyone in the classical music business over the last forty years has heard the phrase “the stories about James Levine.”
Here are two stories which might not be quite what you think of when you hear that phrase.
A friend of mine was, for a time, producer and engineer of the radio broadcasts of the orchestra at Verbier when Levine was conducting regularly there. As is the case with the broadcasts of most festivals and orchestras, where there is more than one performance, either the producer or a member of the musical staff (at the Cincinnati Symphony it was usually one of us on the junior conducting staff who had been in the audience for all the performances) will select what they think are the best options and run those by the maestro before the ‘broadcast performance’ is edited together.
The situation my friend found himself working with Levine in was truly bizarre. At the end of each run of performances he would go to the maestro’s office. There he would see Levine and his brother Tom. My friend was not allowed to speak to Levine directly, but would say to Tom something like “I thought the first movement was the best on Sunday and the other three better on Saturday.” Then Tom would turn to James Levine and say “_________ says “the first movement was the best on Sunday and the other three better on Saturday.””
Bear in mind, my friend is in the room.
Jimmy would then say to Tom “Tell ______ that I would like to use the first and last movements from Sunday and the two middle movements from Saturday.” After which, Tom would turn to my friend and say “Maestro Levine says to use the first and last movements from Sunday and the two middle movements from Saturday.” My friend would confirm to Tom that, of course, that was a far better selection. Those would, indeed, be the movements he would use. Tom would relay that to Levine, who would nod silently. After which, my friend would be dismissed. And this is how he treated one of the top Tonmeisters in Europe, not some piddling assistant conductor. Even a Russian Czar would have been impressed.
Here’s another story.
A different friend worked in the classical department at a Tower Records in a major American city. One morning, he and his colleague arrived at work to a large box and a message saying “Levine’s Mahler 3 is out today. Put up this cardboard display for the LPs and the life-sized cutout of Levine at the top of the escalator before opening.” Many of you may still remember the halcyon days of record stores, where the classical managers presided over their departments with equal parts commanding knowledge and total authority. So it was in this Tower. These guys were used to deciding which Mahler 3’s were worthy of pushing based on their knowledge of 100 other versions. Their view was that Levine was not a good Mahler conductor, that his 3rd probably sucked, and they were not, in any case, going to race to put up all that tacky display stuff until they’d at least listened to it. Well, the shop opened at 10, and at 10:15, James Levine came scooting up the escalator looking for the life-sized cardboard cut-out of himself. He got to the top, stopped and stood there, his eyes narrowed, looking in vain for the missing shrine to his genius. He then turned around and left.
Minutes later, my friend got a phone call from Tower’s corporate office. Levine had called his manager, the manager had called the record company, and the record company had called Tower. This is how fast things can move when a ‘great man’s’ ego doesn’t get the feeding he thinks it deserves. The air was blue as the national head of the classical division explained in no uncertain terms that this was a world-class screw up, and that they had exactly 45 minutes to get the display up. They, of course agreed.
They then took the LP bin, the cardboard cut-out and all the Mahler 3 LPs out to the dumpster and threw them all away. Sure enough, a little while later, Jimmy came up the escalator, looked around briefly with an even darker expression, then turned and left.
I tell these stories not to be glib, but to make a point. The reason I decided to listen to the “write about James Levine” voice was that I couldn’t stand the “great musician, great guy, pity about the scandals,” fake dualism anymore. James Levine wasn’t a great figure with a single tragic flaw. You can’t be a lifelong sexual predator, grooming, coercing, blackmailing, bribing and manipulating children into being repeatedly raped and humiliated if you have just one tragic flaw. He could also be arrogant and petty enough to refuse to speak to his own producer, and insecure enough to involve his own manager and the president of a record company in a dispute over a life-size card-board cutout of him not being displayed in a record store.
Part Two – Boston
I’ve seen people do a lot of stupid and reckless stuff in my life.
But I’ve never, ever seen anything as stupid, reckless and irresponsible as the decision to turn over the keys to the Boston Symphony to James Levine. And yet, in obituary after obituary, I see respected critics talking about how Levine revived a moribund orchestra or raised the standards of their playing to electrifying heights. By my reckoning, I heard the BSO play live four or five times in the mid-late 90s, including two performances with Ozawa, one by Andrew Davis and one with Bernard Haitink. I gotta say, the orchestra sounded pretty damn good in all of those. Maestro Ozawa deserves a lot more credit and respect than he gets for his work in Boston.
By the time Levine got that job, “stories about James Levine” had been universally known about in the music business for more than 20 years. There were entire countries where he was reportedly not allowed to travel, and others where he could not be in a room with minors under any circumstances (including a children’s choir in a concert hall). That the BSO appointed Levine under the circumstances has to have been the most astonishing failure of either judgement or due diligence in the history of the performing arts. I have very little sympathy for the Met in this story, but they can at least plead that, when they hired the 27-year-old Levine, they didn’t know or understand what he was. By the time the BSO appointed Levine, everyone in classical music knew what he was. I remember telling a colleague at the time “when this comes out, the BSO may well go out of business.” I literally couldn’t imagine how such a colossal failure of judgement, which had to be facilitated by dozens of senior management members and the board of directors, could not bring the whole thing down once the truth was known outside the industry.
Why??????
Why risk the entire organisation, your professional reputation and the livelihood of all your musicians and team members for James Levine? The decision to appoint Levine had the potential to cost every member of that orchestra their job, their house, their health insurance, their retirement. And the people making that decision knew the risk they were taking. Is it even a risk, when your entire strategy boils down to the blind hope that American newspapers will continue not to report the worst kept secret in the music industry for the rest of eternity? That’s not a risk, that’s a death wish. And I just don’t think that Levine was a good enough symphonic conductor to merit such a risk. If he was really such a great conductor, why didn’t Berlin take him when Karajan died? Why didn’t Chicago choose him when Solti left? And on, and on…. In fact, other than Munich (who have long a soft spot for darkly crazy maesetri), no other orchestra that could afford him had ever wanted him as a music director.
The amazing thing under the circumstances was that Levine’s tenure in Boston was worse than I thought it would be, in ways I had never imagined. It was such a disaster that his criminality almost became a background issue. He demanded a FORTY MILLION DOLLAR “Jimmy is a genius” fund to pay for his ‘ambitious projects’ and required the players to agree to extra rehearsal time, but even in his first season, musicians began complaining that the maestro was spending those very expensive EXTRA rehearsals with his head buried in the score, sight-reading the music. Forty million dollars! Think how many commissions that could fund? How many scholarships? How many instruments for poor kids? That forty million could fund a world- class British professional chamber orchestra completely for anywhere from 10 to 90 years. Every musician, every staff member, every venue, every music hire. Has there ever been a year in classical music history when the total value of all the commissions paid to all the classical composers in the world combined added up to forty million dollars? Instead, they spent $40 million dollars so Levine could sight read in front of the BSO?
Levine’s much vaunted ‘commitment to new music’ at the BSO only really comprised two composers – Elliott Carter and Charles Wuorinen (with the notable exception of John Harbison’s Sixth Symphony). It is hard to imagine more forbidding repertoire for a symphonic audience, and listeners started staying home in droves. In one Carter performance, Levine reportedly got lost (Word on the street was that he turned two pages in a very difficult passage. It’s happened to me, and it happens to most conductors at some point.), and musicians describe Levine being unprepared and unaware of when they were faking.
There’s a long and necessary book to be written about Levine’s years in Boston. There are serious questions that need answering. How much money did he receive from the orchestra during his tenure and under what conditions? Was he paid for concerts he didn’t give? For seasons he wasn’t involved in? When he was injured and unable to conduct, did he help plan concerts? Raise money? Recruit board members? Teach? It is reported that in 2005, this great orchestra builder only attended 2 out of 16 auditions. How many did he attend in other years, if any? How was that forty million spent? What legacy did it create?
The wasted money, the repeated no-shows, the lack of interest the welfare of the institution… it beggars belief. His tenure apparently ended when he was so loopy on painkillers in a rehearsal that the musicians put their foot down in 2011 and said that had to be the last rehearsal. That decision probably saved the BSO, because it meant he was a fading memory by the time the US press finally broke their wall of silence on his criminal behavior in 2017. It also means that nobody involved in hiring Levine has faced any consequences for their decisions that I am aware of.
I’m not the only one to point out that the Met paid Levine $3.5 million in 2019, and the all the musicians in the orchestra not a penny since Covid. What is also worth pointing out is that Jimmy seemed just fine with that. What kind of “great colleague” sits on $3.5 million in blood money paid for with the innocence of children when his supposedly beloved orchestral colleagues are losing their homes right, left and centre? At the end of his life, the famously tough Lorin Maazel put much of his substantial wealth into supporting young musicians through his festival and his competition. Where was James Levine’s sense of duty and charity during Covid? Or in the preceding decades?
James Levine was not a great man with a single tragic flaw. He was an almost completely horrible person, with a single tragic talent.
Part Three – The Artistic Legacy
Was he the greatest American conductor of his generation?
He was very possibly the most gifted American performer of his generation. His ear, his memory, his knowledge of languages, his encyclopaedic knowledge of opera style and performance tradition are all legendary. He was a phenomenal pianist. But, for me, great musicians compose, explore and arrange. They research, they challenge assumptions, they create and they re-invent. He didn’t create, he didn’t compose, he didn’t expand the repertoire in a meaningful way through either the exploration of lost and unknown work, or through commissioning. He was, instead, the ultimate embodiment of the musical status quo, as was his overall leadership of the Met, which during his time was known for bland, middle of the road stagings.
I watched pretty much every Met broadcast he did on TV, and listened to hundreds of others on the radio. Looking back, everything he did was well-played and well-sung, and that’s something I can’t say about my own performing life, though I wish I could. The playing of the Met Orchestra (unpaid for a year at the time of his death) could be a thing of wonder. He had some fantastic collaborations with singers, no doubt about it. And some performances, like his Otello with Domingo, really thrilled me. But I can’t think of any opera in which his recording would be my first choice, and there are many where I feel that once you’ve heard the real thing, his interpretations seem pretty pale – particularly in Wagner. Without the world’s greatest singers at his side, I can’t think of a single symphonic recording of his that is of the first rank. I completely understand why my friend would not be bullied into making Levine’s Mahler 3 into the official version of ‘his’ classical department. I once listed to an entire CD of Schumann 3 on the radio because it was so leaden, dull and awful that I had to find out who it was. No prize for guessing who was conducting.
It astonishes me that some on the internet have chosen to defend Levine on the basis that he was a victim of ‘cancel culture.’ And that it’s not fair to disregard a life of ‘great’ music making because of a single character flaw or error of judgement. But let’s be real for a moment. We call misconduct misconduct because it is, by definition, improper. Sexual misconduct is particularly insidious, and always a serious matter, but on the scale of seriousness, spending fifty-plus years serial raping children is about as bad as it gets. Really, what could be worse? Chopping up grandma with an axe? At least she’s had a life, and her suffering was brief. Levine’s victims had their childhoods and their futures stolen from them, and they’ve had to live with the trauma of his acts for their entire lives. They will take the memory of the true face of James Levine to their graves. The dark face that many in the American musical firmament knew existed, but chose to conceal for decades.
Here’s what cancel culture is.
Cancel culture is that the voice on my shoulder saying “don’t write about James Levine” is saying things like “because you’ll never work at the BSO or the Met.” Well, they haven’t exactly been booking me every week, so that’s fine. That voice is saying “don’t question his musical genius, because the leading critics in America have spent the last 30 years telling everyone he’s the greatest conductor since Bernstein, and critics have long memories.” That voice is saying “don’t call out the complicity of the rich and powerful, because in addition to sitting on boards of directors that facilitated his criminality and covered up his crimes, they sit on boards of trusts and foundations that you need to support your work.” That voice is saying “don’t speak ill of the dead, it’s wrong.” Well, if someone is ‘ill’ and you can’t speak of them when they’re alive, and you can’t speak of them when they’re dead, then I guess you can’t speak ill of them at all. That voice is talking to me and MANY others like me this week. The fear in our industry is real. People don’t want a ‘reputation’. They don’t want to burn bridges. But, like Granny under the axe, I’ve lived, I’ve got a job (for now), and so here I am. Having seen a few of my friends and colleagues with more to lose than me speak the truth on this topic today, I want to stand with them.
UPDATE
Thanks to everyone for your words of support.
There are many interesting comments below, including ones from members of the BSO, the Met, the Chicago Symphony and many other orchestras. For some reason, my website is clipping it down to just the most recent ones. It’s worth the effort to click on ‘older posts’ and see what others have said.
You are a valiant man to write what you did. In the mid eighties, a New York pediatrician colleague of mine told me of Levine’s pedophilia and that there had been legal settlements with victims. The Met knew this for years. It seems that the music world(among others) accepted these behaviors and hid them to allow the geniuses to continue doing their wonderful work-which as you point out may not have been as wonderful after all. I know from good source that at least one singing star knew about it and would not let a child alone in Levine’s company. He was an abject predator and destroyer of children and adolescents. Shame on the Met and shame on all those who covered up his misdeeds .
Kenneth Woods: You have spoken a Truth that should have been spoken long ago. That The MET protected a sexual predator is one thing. That he had a fetish for young black teenage boys in particular with the open knowledge of that by two of the most important Black female opera singers of the era suggests that he wielded demonic powers of forced complicity that could either propel one’s career or destroy it. Those who benefitted from their association with his “Karajan like stature” in the American opera world were complicit “enablers”. I suppose that was literally “the choice”: career or ethical integrity. The tragedy is literally “operatic” if not expressly matching Verdi operas: the lives damaged/lost and the roads not taken. One wishes for a world….where artistic genius could be free of “darkness”.
Excellent article. I wish my original comment would be posted.
Further publication: you might check out WNYC & the Brian Lehrer Show. I have no idea if they would take or not. Similarly, the New Yorker has been doing various MeToo stories.
Excellent essay and posts. Thank you.
James Levine’s life as a musician and serial sexual predator needs to be put in the context of
the clandestine world of sexual predators that has been an important part of late 20th-Century American culture. Although the 1975 Church Committee hinted at this world (and CIA involvement), it first came to the attention of the American public in “the Franklin Scandal” and then dramatically erupted onto the American scene first with the sex abuse scandals of the Catholic Church and secondarily with the abuse of young athletes and actors (popularized in the documentaries “An Open Secret”, 2014, and “Athlete A”, 2020).
Levine’s potentially illegal—and always immoral—activities were well known, as the comments above have shown (I first heard the rumors in Cincinnati in 1975). But Levine’s activities are not unique, or perhaps even unusual. In 2015, The Horace Mann School settled a lawsuit from a former student who claimed that conductor Johannes Somary molested him hundreds of times between 1973 and 1977, paying one million dollars in claims (the lawsuit was brought in New Jersey, which has less restrictive laws than in New York). In 2013, the school published on its website a letter apologizing for abuse by unnamed former teachers and administrators and said Horace Mann had reached settlement with “nearly everyone” (Somary died in 2011). In a 9/22/2020 statement , the Curtis Institute Board of Trustees found alumna Laura St John’s accusation of rape credible and apologized for failing to provide both a “safe learning environment,” and refusing to “carefully investigate her claims”. The University of Michigan is currently facing multiple cases involving faculty sexually abusing students (including minors).
Financially—at least so far—the institutions that employed Levine have escaped financial penalties for their possible failure to do due diligence regarding his employment. Institutions employing predators of athletes haven’t been so protected. In the case of Penn State and Jerry Sandusky (Sandusky was convicted of rape and child sexual abuse), Penn State’s president, vice president, and athletic director were dismissed from their positions and faced criminal trials, and Penn State paid damages to victims of at least 93 million dollars. Richard Strauss abused at least 177 Ohio State University student-patients. He was suspended from his OSU duties and committed suicide in 2005. Twenty OSU employees, including OSU’s former Athletic Director, faced federal lawsuits. At this writing, OSU has agreed to pay $40.9 million to settle lawsuits from former student athletes who alleged Strauss sexually abused them. The abuse of Larry Nassar is the subject of “Athlete A”, a Netflix documentary. Michigan State eventually agreed to a $500 million dollar settlement with several hundred of Nassar’s victims. Nassar is spending the rest of his life in prison. Michigan State University president Lou Anna Simon resigned as president and continues to fight criminal charges of lying to the police. Steve Penny, former USA Gymnastics CEO, faces trial, charged with tampering with evidence.
What tends to be left-out of these narratives is the cascading catastrophe abuse causes in the lives of the victims. John-Michael Lander was an internationally ranked diver, bound for the 1980 Olympics (the games boycotted by Jimmy Carter). He went on to a career in Hollywood and later public education and then writing. “Surface Tension” and “Cracked Surface” are two
autobiographical novels where he details the story of athletes who are groomed and sexually exploited, a process that devastates the victims.
Exploited athletes have come together to offer each other emotional support and have found avenues to publicize the problem of abuse for the purpose of ending it. Army of Survivors is one such group (thearmyofsurvivors.org). And there has been significant research into the rates of abuse in the population of elite athletes (a 2014 paper delivered at the IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury & Illness in Sport, delivered in Monaco, concluded that “sexual and physical abuse victims are common in elite athletics”).
But relatively little has been done about this problem with musicians. Indeed, in much of the world of classical music it isn’t seen as a problem at all (Zubin Mehta’s comment about Levine, saying that he was “ruined by US media” isn’t a lone voice). Because of this, we at the School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University are in the beginning stages of hosting a conference focusing on the issue of sexual exploitation in the world of classical music. The idea of the conference has been approved by the School’s administration and is making its way up through the higher layers of the university’s administration. We are looking for organizations to partner with us, looking for presenters, and–of course–scouting for potential funders.
If you have any interest in this, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Mike Linton
Professor of Music
School of Music
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
mlinton@mtsu.edu
Links to materials listed above
1. NPR Curtis Institute of Music and Laura St. John
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/23/916108440/top-music-school-finds-sexual-abuse-allegations-from-violinist-credible
2 Newsweek on Horace Mann School and sexual abuse
https://www.newsweek.com/horace-mann-sexual-abuse-335915
3 University of Michigan sexual abuse cases
https://www.lieffcabraser.com/injury/u-of-m-abuse-pilots/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5YCjlL7A7wIVCI7ICh2NkACaEAAYASAAEgI4a_D_BwE
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/29/university-michigan-violin-sex-crimes/6069902002/
4. Abstracts from the IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury & Illness in Sport, Monaco 2014 LIFETIME SEXUAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE AMONG ELITE ATHLETIC ATHLETES: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY OF PREVALENCE AND CORRELATES WITH ATHLETICS INJURY
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/48/7/667.1
5. website of The Army of Survivors
https://www.thearmyofsurvivors.org/
6. John-Michael Lander, Center on Sexual Exploitation discussion of grooming
https://vimeo.com/439119774/174690a53b
There’s one thing that should be addressed, beyond the horror this abuser inflinged to his victims, and it is those people that, knowing that, find a way to gain his favour, wether to have more influence or to get a position.
No-one has yet opened the can of worms that would be reviewing his decisions on auditions, ie, and this is really annoying as some people who are now sitting in the orchestras he had influence, are -in some cases- people who participated of this, or “exchanged” sexual favours for a position. Check certain profiles and you’ll see that there are victims, but there are also “exchangers”.
I was a stagehand at the MET for 20 years and was in charge of setting up the orchestra pit on a daily basis on the carpenter side. The money the met spent on getting his ass in the pit was absolutely disgusting. After his probably 3rd back operation getting him in & out of the pit was a horror. Everything had to stop cause he needed a wheelchair to get around. My ass !!! Back surgery for what ? Molesting children?? I am sure he met his maker already and I am pretty sure it’s HOT!!! Where he is right now!!! Good!!! Anyone who takes a child’s innocence away like he had for so many years deserves the hell he is in for eternal life!!! Enjoy SCUMBAG!!!!
As a survivor of sexual abuse within another institution (the church) I just want to say thank you so much for taking this stand. So often others are silent and the institution defends or covers up. It’s so painful for victims to have their abusers celebrated. It’s so powerful when the truth is recognised. Thank you.
Sorry for the delay in posting your previous comment, Bill. Given the time change, it was the middle of the night here when you sent it. It should be up now. Thanks for reading and for commenting.
Ken
I worked in administration at BSO when Levine was announced. There was a collective jaw-drop, and not in a good way. We all knew the stories and were disappointed. BSO’s farewell to Ozawa was heartfelt and meaningful, a true celebration. There was optimism for our next Music Director. The office went from hopeful to despair in an instant.
For a very short time, I was A&R VP of Sony Classical in NY. Peter Gelb was not only president of Sony, and obviously my boss, he was still Levine’s manager, hanging over from Gelb’s days at CAMI. Peter Gelb demanded that we sign Levine to Sony exclusively and I refused – first, like you, there was nothing I had heard that made me believe he was the greatest interpreter of his day, and second, I’m always suspicious of conductors who are unanimously popular with singers. Giving singers what they want in opera is to lose the architecture of opera, and this was especially true with Levine’s performances of Wagner. His “Tristan” which I saw many times, left me feeling like I was in a raft stuck in the Saragossa Sea: but the singers loved him – he indulged them and gave them the tempi they wanted, supported their every breath and lip synched their lines. He was a great repetiteur, but great repetiteurs don’t always make great conductors. And by the way, I also mentioned to Gelb at this point (mid-1990s), his “fatal flaw” of being attracted to young men (which was what I was when I first encountered Levine in the late 1970s). He abused young children, but he manipulated young men with promises of support, which as producer at Decca at the time, I didn’t need or want. Gelb dismissed this earlier encounter with Levine with the hilarious rejoinder that I should just “put that behind” me. When Gelb was later forced to into firing Levine with a statement that he “had no idea”… I was staggered by the shameless hypocrisy. He was clearly complicit. I resigned my VP position after only four or five months and returned to Berlin where I was Sony’s producer for the Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado.
An excellent exposé on the shameful conduct of Levine, the Metropolitan Opera and the BSO. The latter two especially, as they were as complicit as the Catholic Church in enabling and protecting the pedophiles in their ranks. And let’s not forget all the money quietly diverted from the arts to pay off his accusers. I never saw much in his talent, and his promotion of fifth-rate voices (*cough* Kathleen Battle *cough*) did more to harm the industry than nurture it. Those celebrating his questionable “legacy” may see the impact in the form of future donations being diverted elsewhere. When the original details came out in 2017, my Metropolitan Opera season subscription ended, and I won’t ever give another penny of support to them.
Thank you SO much for saying so many of the glaringly obvious, common-sense things that so, so many people refuse to say (or even see). The mental gymnastics members of our profession go through to believe such idiotic lies (“He was a genius”, “He had just one human flaw”, etc.) are truly astounding. At times, it is depressing. So it is very heartening to see someone refusing to buy into the sycophantic admiration of the “Emperor’s clothes”.
Thank you for this article. I have learned much from a trusted voice of reason.
It’s profoundly sad that the death of James Levine has released a flood of unpalatable accounts of misconduct. Kenneth Woods, I applaud you for writing this. It’s important that the truth comes out and that people who have suffered are encouraged to speak up about their experiences. As a longtime opera enthusiast, I have been sickened by the stories of abuse coming out of the classical world recently. How many young musicians have looked up to people like James Levine, Placido Domingo, and Charles Dutoit? How many promising careers have been ruined? Reading about such despicable activities and the massive coverups (that span decades) is enough to deter many gifted artists from seeking musical careers. Why has it taken so long to expose and curtail these predatory abuses of power? Sexual harassment in the workplace is considered a serious matter with costly legal consequences to organizations that ignore it. Professional opera companies and orchestras need to implement policies and consequences that prevent abuse, protect victims, and empower young artists. Opinions about Levine’s artistry and musical legacy are bound to differ, and in fairness to those who have worked with him, should not be tarnished by his misdeeds. While there are several other conductors I prefer (especially for Wagner), Levine’s collaborations with singers like Pavarotti, Freni, Battle, Caballe, Scotto (etc.) have stood the test of time and will remain in my collection. By several accounts, James Levine was extremely sensitive to the needs of the singers he worked with. Perhaps that’s one of the few great legacies he leaves. Michael Hass (March 21) illuminates how power politics in the classical recording industry has led to some lackluster recordings (I would agree) and I would imagine has shut out more innovative and promising talent. However, I do take issue with his comments about singers–I am most suspicious of conductors who are UNPOPULAR with singers. Considering the insanely difficult and physically (not to mention intellectually) demanding roles undertaken by professional opera singers, artistry noticeably suffers when singers’ input is discouraged or dismissed. No disrespect intended Mr. Hass, but I believe the architecture of opera, yes even Wagner, can be strengthened by the constructive input of the singers who arguably carry the heaviest technical weight. Within reason, of course! Music is a collaborative art form and performers (vocal and orchestral) deserve due respect for all that they contribute to a production. The harassment horror stories being related by singers, largely vulnerable young women, are the legacy of an era of male-dominated arts administration and autocratic conductors.
Thank you.
>> He abused young children
Can one hear more about this charge, even if secondhand? It is something quite other than the current list. Thank you.
I am the parent of a musician who studied, in their most formative and vulnerable years, with another protected predator. They were never, as far as I know, personally targeted, but young people know, even when their elders pretend otherwise, that something is deeply wrong. In less than a year, my happy, confident child became depressed, angry, and self-destructive. It wasn’t for lack of ability or work ethic. When, finally, they went to a another teacher, their excellent musicianship was restored, though their confidence still suffers.
Herr Doktor put their finger on another problem arising from Levine’s (and other predators’) “lack of human empathy, a lack of emotional connectedness, and an inability to connect the dots of life”: teaching of music that is soulless as well as heartless. They relentlessly hammer away at technical perfection, with endless reminders that a single technical error or naive youthful faux-pas would most definitely deny you any chance of an even mildly brilliant career. This creates, not only in those who have studied with heartless and soulless predators – both successfully and not so much – but also in those who have successfully navigated the institutions that have protected them, satisfaction with and prioritizing of mere technical perfection, to the detriment of real music-making.
I myself have worked for another kind of institution that protected a sexual predator for decades and that still idolizes him and his work. The fall-out is on-going and far-reaching, not only in staff morale, but in service to patrons. I think that it may become the same in the classical music world.
Finally, Herr Doktor’s reporting that “Levine was hired because his presence made fundraising easy in Boston’s Jewish community” reveals some very ugly anti-semitism on the part of the BSO administration and board. I owe my and my family’s livelihood to a Jewish mentor. I think that Boston’s Jewish community would have funded excellence whoever brought it to the orchestra.
I was a vocal fellow under Levine at Tanglewood. I was very young, still in college. “Jimmy likes little black boys,” was the gossip passed around the breakfast table with general ‘everyone knows it’ nonchalance. If us lowly vocal fellows knew — everyone knew.
I can also report where a (albeit small) portion of his outrageous BSO fee went. He always wore the same shirt that summer (and from photos I’ve seen, many other times as well). A navy J Crew polo. He had boxes of them shipped to him — I was told that he simply threw each shirt away after one (several?) wearings. The ostentatious waste of that was hard for me to wrap my head around, as a young scholarship student. Also, my sister waited on Levine and his brother many times in NYC. They would regularly order $10,000 bottles of wine. A rich person is allowed to do as they wish with their money, of course. But classical music is such a desperately lopsided financial model. Most who work in it have a hard time comfortably paying their bills, while a very tiny group is paid fees which are astronomical in comparison to the norm. I feel that it’s morally wrong for star conductors/musicians to accept fees like this, as it destabilizes the entire industry.
Ken I have had the pleasure of sitting in a few of your rehearsal.
I am Shocked, disgusted and outraged that this has been allowed to happen over such a long period of time. Shame of James Levine and bigger shame on those in powerful positions to allow him to continue indulging.
I will tonite burn the 2 CDs I have of him
Thank you for this candid article. I think it’s vital to expose hypocritical behavior and attitudes
To “Singer” above:
Thank you for your frank comments and unique perspective.
I agree with you when you say that a “rich person may do as they wish with their money.”
I also agree with you that, knowing the desperate situation non-profits in the U.S. faced even before the pandemic, Levine’s excessive fees—and seeming wastefulness—signal a certain “tone deafness.”
Perhaps the “throw away” wardrobe is an apt but tragic metaphor for the powerless and vulnerable people in his life who, if unwilling to acquiesce to his sexual advances, proved not of use to him and were, thus, disposable.
I was glad to have someone else question the label of “musical genius”. I was never invited to the Met so perhaps one might call it “sour grapes” but I thought his recordings were unexciting and even pedestrian. Perhaps it is not so hard to be a great conductor if you have a great orchestra in front of you.
I’d love to know what Levine’s wife feels about his passing. Shrewd move in estate preservation. The fact that he actually engaged in a financial arrangement did not surprise me and I had bet on it before it was made public. I can’t wait to read the book.
Worst kept secret ever. I was a high school student at the Interlochen Arts Academy in the late 80s and it was talked about by my fellow students in the chorus and orchestra. I always hoped it was some horrifically ugly rumor, a rumor without any merit…you are naive at that age….
Thank you, Ken! And all. Very moving. Noticing the timing of Levine’s hiring by the BSO (2001) to start with 2004 season, and Marty Baron/Boston Globe’s (2002) investigative reporting that exposed the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the Roman Catholic Church’s vast sex scandal cover up leading, oc, to the film Spotlight. Dominant culture can assume habits of not seeing, only when bystanders (and targets) say nothing. Why we celebrate the Me Too Movement. My sweetheart and I were at an afternoon rehearsal at Tanglewood (was this 2004’s 8th?) when Levine fell off the high stool. We knew nothing at the time of his offstage reputation, were high with expectation. But thank heavens and some courageous people, for getting that story out eventually. And thank goodness for BSO’s terrific conductor now, Andris Nelsons!
During my undergraduate studies at Case Western Reserve University, I had the occaision to befriend a few CIM students who lived in my dorm pod; and believe me, Levine’s predatory behavior was no secret back in 1969 ! The hypocrisy and moral failing of his legion of enablers, those accessories to his depravity, serves as a reproach to the ‘arts business.’
I was one of those who felt that Levine was a genius with a tragic flaw. I now am much less disposed to let him off the hook. What you said about his time at BSO was eye-opening. Thank you.
Thank you Kenneth Woods for this blog and alerting his twitter followers to the R3 programme in which he participated: that such a thorny subject is aired “publicly” is good of course but it certainly wasn’t new but covering the various aspects as you and your “bloggers” have done gave me a wider appreciation generally and yes all very shocking of course. My own collection is much lacking in Levine recordings overshadowed by Karajan and Bernstein ( among others ) ; anyway while I will now not be bothering with his Mahler and Sibelius I spotted on amazon recently I will ( paradoxically perhaps ) not be burning my Mozart symphony box set I have had for years ( the only recordings by Levine I have ) with respect to the fine playing of the VPO.
In the late 1990s I attended the final rehearsal of James Levine with the Philharmonia in Mahler 8 at the Albert Hall. I was there as a guest of the Chair of the London Philharmonic Choir who mentioned the scandals and how ‘none of us mention it!’ Hang on a minute, how did a peadophile get a work visa to enter the UK and how did he end up conducting a work with a children’s Chorus. Safeguarding then wasn’t what it is now but all the same. If I knew GM of Philharmonia must have known. Did nobody say wait a minute. Did anybody say No Way? Did anybody not close ranks? Were the parents of the children in choir aware? Did anybody do anything? Obviously not!
Jesus Ken…did you hire bodyguards since writing this? This is is insanely brave and inestimably brave. If I hadn’t been in an almost year long news moratorium (best damn year of my adult life BTW) I would have jumped on this sooner but I honestly didn’t even know Levine had passed. Your points about the BSO literally had me jumping out of my seat screaming “Fuck yeah Ken!! Tell those BASTARDS!” I have refused to attend a SINGLE BSO concert since he took the reins and haven’t been able to even THINK about attending. This is all sickly tragic. You deserve an award here bud…or better yet:
Come and take over the BSO DUDE
I worked at Ravinia in the late 80 early 90 . Right when he was perving on the underage cellist. It was known at the time. In fact, I heard one of the board member joke “i dont care how many young boys it takes, as long as he keeps conducting performances like that”. I was disgusted, as were many others. We did nothing because it would have gotten us fired. What could we do? Law enforcement’ knew as well. I still feel bad about it. Being in the same room with that man gave me a stomach ache. Thank you for daring to speak the truth.
Levine and his proclivities were the worst kept, most shameful open secret in classical music history. The mystery is how it went on for decades. He had lots of help .
In1974, I sang in the Saratoga-Potsdam choir. Under Levine’s direction, we sang a Mozart mass( I can’t remember which one) with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He required that the rehearsal conductor run through the entire work at rehearsal, while Levine sat at a desk in front of the choir. Brock McElharen, the conductor and head of the Saratoga-Potsdam Choral Institute, was brilliant that day. Of course, Levine got the credit for the performance with the orchestra, but the experience paled in comparison with our rehearsal performance with Brock. There were rumors then that Levine was committing sexual acts with boys, but I didn’t completely believe them. Thank you for your brave letter verifying those long ago rumors.
You are an incredibly brave and thoughtful man. Thank you so much for writing this. As a classical music fan, and not an insider, I had no idea the depth of his depravity during the years I heard him conduct at Ravinia and the Met. Sickening.
It’s amazing that Gelb put up with Levine for as long as he did? That should also include his predecessor and all of those weak-kneed Met General managers who gave Levine cover, and that includes the Met board. Those of us, who were in the know about music matters at the Met throughout the 70s and 80s knew of Levine’s pedophilia. The fact that his horrific acts were covered up by so many from his managers, and the yes men who gave him a cover at the Met. And what of Gelb himself. He was in charge of classical music at Sony during the years he was making recordings of DON CARLO, LUISA MILLER, AIDA and other operas for the label. He knew. So did every department head at the Met. Beverly Sills who championed Gelb’s appointment at the Met had to have known. Why was he so well protected, especially considering his reputation was hardly a secret outside the institution? Everyone covered up his secret. Why. Yes he was a great opera conductor–well…Verdi, Puccini, and other Italian works. Mozart too, though his heavy mid-century style was out of fashion. But I agree that his Wagner was ponderous. And his bel canto rep was superficial and unstylish.
Again, I repeat that many, many, many people I knew in music circles in New York City, including record executives, PR people and other industry insiders all had heard the stories for decades. In a way, we were all complicit. I cannot address Levine’s Boston years, though we all read the disturbing stories about is long absences. And thank you for the kind words you wrote about Seiji Ozawa. Boston music critics were cruel, and frankly racist in their remarks about his performances, particularly Michael Steinberg of the Boston Globe. He may have had a lot respect from colleagues, but his reviews of Ozawa’s performances as the orchestra’s music director should not have been tolerated. After all, Ozawa last 25 years, Steinberg less than half of that time. And the evidence simply wasn’t there. I heard Ozawa at Carnegie Hall at the orchestra’s yearly concerts and many were thrilling and linger in the memory longer after they happened. And while Steinberg has nothing to do with Levine’s short tenture in Boston, other critics knew as did any critic covering Met performances during his years as the Met’s principal conductor and music director. So I would have to say that anyone associated with Met was complicit in his crimes.
Much heat on Jeremy Eichler. His reviews were part of the woodwork in the Levine period. We may never know what gossip he chose to ignore, but it would be worth re-reading his write-ups and comparing with broadcasts.
The most egregious offenses, though (IMO) were committed by Richard Dyer. He was no longer the only big critic in town, but occasionally he’d pop up and defend an artist by saying “well, so he porks farm animals– who cares?” or similar. He completely trashed Joan Peyser’s bio of Bernstein for saying what we all know to be the case now, and watch in theaters (up to a point). And I am pretty sure that he came to Levine’s defense at least once, in ways that were annoying then and should be embarrassing now.