"The era of genius worship must end with James Levine."

March 19, 2021 9:10 AM

[tw: sexual assault, abusive asshole] James Levine, whose career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City spanned 50 years, died March 9 at age 77. The Boston Globe, well known for its Spotlight investigation team and blowing wide open the abusive priest situation in the Catholic church for the first time in 2002, has its take on Levine: "In the maestro’s thrall." (Longform article, has all the ugly details.) Fired in 2018, he sued the Met and a settlement was announced for $3.5 million. A good article in the Globe today: The era of genius worship must end with James Levine. (Limited articles for Boston Globe) From this NY Times obituary: "'No artist in the 137-year history of the Met had as profound an impact as James Levine,' Peter Gelb, the company’s general manager, said in a statement. 'He raised the Met’s musical standards to new and greater heights during a tenure that spanned five decades.'"
posted by Melismata (37 comments total)

The Met is trying to stay on both sides in this notice.
posted by JanetLand at 9:36 AM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

I hate the implication in most if not all stories of this type that only the asshole in question could have done the kind of job they did. Maybe someone who didn’t cause parents to have to tell their children to never be alone in a room with him could have done just as good a job or even better? We’ll never know, but perhaps the serial abuse of several young men over the course of decades is a small price to pay for the improvement and higher profile of an opera company and symphony.

/sarcasm
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:02 AM on March 19, 2021 [18 favorites]

My wife read the headline to me and then waited, expectantly, for my response. I could finally get out "that's … complicated." His musical legacy at the Met was significant and can't be understated, but the company is tarnished by its longstanding willful ignorance of what was going on. They had to know. In my experience in opera, these things aren't exactly secret.
posted by fedward at 10:14 AM on March 19, 2021 [9 favorites]

Came in here more or less to say what fedward said, but I'm 13 minutes late and a dollar short.
posted by slkinsey at 10:27 AM on March 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Read on this. We can all draw a lesson from the Levine affair to refrain from enabling the bad.
posted by interglossa at 10:36 AM on March 19, 2021 [30 favorites]

My reaction was uncomplicated: "Good riddance."

I was actually working at the Met Opera as an Email Producer for the Marketing department on the day the most recent set of allegations against Levine dropped. The sense of utter fear and panic among the higher-ups was palpable, and it was not at all fun getting the emails out the door about the Met's announcement that day.

Was he an amazing conductor and musician? To be honest, I'm not qualified to say. I don't have enough of a grounding in classical music and opera to have much of an opinion about conductors. His actions, and the enabling thereof, is enough to sour me on him and his legacy. Would I watch or listen to a recording he conducted? If there were no other available options, I suppose, especially if I'm interested in a specific production of an opera. I sincerely hope that Levine's death doesn't mean we all forget about the harm and abuse he caused, and that classical music has its reckoning with the power structures and abuse within its ranks.

As for the Met Opera itself? They're absolutely complicit—at least the Board, the General Managers, and those who put the Cult of the Conductor and their bottom line above what is moral and ethical. Yet, despite my misgivings about the Met (and the unrelated friction that led to my departure from the organization), I still support the Met as an artistic endeavor. I want them to do better. I can't see them not acknowledging the death of Levine, though I'm miffed at the weakness of their explanation of why he was fired.

I still look forward to the day I can walk back into that opera house and take in a performance again, and at least now I don't have to worry about them backtracking and letting that predator back to the podium.
posted by SansPoint at 10:37 AM on March 19, 2021 [18 favorites]

Around 2007, I worked for a performing arts venue that booked the BSO with James Levine conducting. I was a small part of the marketing department with almost no knowledge of classical music and its stars. But I knew that James Levine was a serial abuser of young men. If I knew, and I cannot stress enough how I was nobody, then every person with the power to remove Levine but chose not to must have known.
posted by gladly at 10:43 AM on March 19, 2021 [19 favorites]

Maybe someone who didn’t cause parents to have to tell their children to never be alone in a room with him could have done just as good a job or even better?

This. Of course. They'd not want for applicants. And suppose the person they get is not quite as good as the "genius". Who fucking cares? It's not as important as your interns not getting raped, or whatever he did.
posted by thelonius at 10:46 AM on March 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

In Boston, we are very fiercely loyal to our institutions like the BSO, and when he arrived there to conduct, we were very snarky from day one to this interloper from New York City, of all places. We said that we needed a real conductor like Seiji Ozawa, who was part of the community and went to Red Sox games, not this guy who was phoning it in and then hightailing it back to the Met. Every time he cancelled a performance, we gloated. When BSO musicians complained that he was working them too hard, we clucked our tongues. When he finally resigned due to missing too many performances, we said buh-bye, he was never one of us anyway.

When the allegations came out, my first thought was, yeah, that figures.
posted by Melismata at 10:52 AM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

"Was he an amazing conductor and musician? To be honest, I'm not qualified to say."

I am in no way qualified either, but I never saw it. I see it with other conductors from time to time, I see it in Levine's successor (at least in terms of sheer engagement), but I never got the big deal about Levine. I saw him more as being a brand, as much as fixture of the place as the chandeliers.

But no matter how good he actually was, I'm certain the Met could have found someone who was maybe 98% as capable, and who wasn't a predator.
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:53 AM on March 19, 2021 [8 favorites]

An email that Peter Gelb sent to Met Opera company members about Levine's death leaked. After working at the Met for three years, I knew he was an idiot, but I didn't realize how much of an idiot.
posted by SansPoint at 11:00 AM on March 19, 2021 [7 favorites]

X Axis: Artistry
Y Axis: Toxicity
This man, like many other celebrities in our patriarchal capitalistic society, is high in both.

Curious about people with high X and low Y, what kind of environment produces them, and what would be the cost of making more of them.
posted by otherchaz at 11:08 AM on March 19, 2021 [7 favorites]

James Levine: America's Maestro

Says a lot, right there . . .
posted by flug at 11:13 AM on March 19, 2021

The best way to make more high-artistry, low-toxicity people is to root out the high-toxicity people from positions of power in the arts. This both discourages the toxicity that results from institutions whitewashing systemic abuse, and encourages the talent of emerging artists who don't want to be abused. Two-for-one special!
posted by armeowda at 11:18 AM on March 19, 2021 [17 favorites]

The art is not worth putting up with pieces of shit like Levine. It's never worth it.
posted by dazed_one at 11:20 AM on March 19, 2021 [6 favorites]

I cannot emphasize enough how great the post by Kenneth Woods that interglossa linked to above is. It includes a coda about "cancel culture" that's especially vital right now.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:20 AM on March 19, 2021 [26 favorites]

I've never heard of a genius/asshole who stopped being a genius when people made them stop being an asshole.
posted by tclark at 11:26 AM on March 19, 2021 [13 favorites]

Thirding the Kenneth Woods piece. Grieving for the lives he damaged, the voices he silenced and the careers he ended.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:58 AM on March 19, 2021 [8 favorites]

Never forget that Peter Gelb demanded that union stagehands, who haven't worked for a year, take a probably-permanent 30% pay cut - and when they spoke out to refuse in one voice, locked them out in the middle of a global pandemic.
posted by nevercalm at 12:25 PM on March 19, 2021 [13 favorites]

Nthing the Kenneth Woods piece. "James Levine was not a great man with a single tragic flaw. He was an almost completely horrible person, with a single, tragic talent."
posted by Melismata at 1:00 PM on March 19, 2021 [14 favorites]

It's worth reading the comments below the Kenneth Woods piece. I am no big classical music listener, but this happens everywhere.
I'm trying to articulate something but I'm not sure my words are quite there yet: this type of self-aggrandizing, abusive man* appeals to some people in a way I don't entirely understand. Boards that should know better appoint them, and fund their wildest whims. Donors bask in their presence. Critics know all about the rumors but somehow feel cool when they ignore them.
I have observed that for some, there is a huge fascination of getting away with crimes and misdemeanors. But it is also a convention, some people feel that a genius has to be cruel and crazy, a polite genius is not a real genius. This makes it complicated, because to some extent, that means you can't have a career if you don't play that game. I don't mean you need to sexually abuse minors, this is an extreme case. But you do perhaps have to engage in some glamorous "bad boy" behaviour to get on the A-list.
Last year I wrote a little book about a semi-famous artist who was a very shy and modest person. He was often compared to a colleague, and he even measured himself against that other person, who was handsome, flamboyant and not altogether sane (though not criminal). I don't feel I need to decide who was the more important artist, but I do wonder how much was about their personal style, and how much about the actual work.

Also, I hope and believe that there will be a reckoning with this now. We are realizing, all over the world, that we do not need to tolerate abuse and criminality. There are plenty of really amazing talented people who are nice. I wonder how this will play out, and how many years it will take for this change to happen.

*there is a female version of this, but she is rarer.
posted by mumimor at 1:40 PM on March 19, 2021 [8 favorites]

So gross. Every one of these stories is the same. "Oh we have no record of any allegations" "No formal complaint." OK but everyone knew. He kept nothing secret.

this type of self-aggrandizing, abusive man* appeals to some people in a way I don't entirely understand

I agree, I understand the impulse to try and separate the talent from the abuse but in my eyes they are one and the same - not that abuse makes them talented or talent make them abusive, but that people and institutions are attracted to the abuse and reward it. It all feeds into the narrative they tell about themselves, and then becomes a product of that narrative.
posted by muddgirl at 2:51 PM on March 19, 2021 [6 favorites]

I cannot emphasize enough how great the post by Kenneth Woods that interglossa linked to above is. It includes a coda about "cancel culture" that's especially vital right now.

True! And definitely read the comments!
posted by medusa at 3:23 PM on March 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've paid plenty for my "errors", so the idea that if I dance on this guy's grave maybe one day people will judge me lacks the force that perhaps you hoped for. I would also like to express utmost contempt for the comment's equivalence of being sexually abused, and being fired for sexual abuse as "destroying lives".
posted by thelonius at 3:26 PM on March 19, 2021 [3 favorites]

Twang:

1) An independent investigation that the Met Opera conducted confirmed those allegations. That's why he was fired from the Met.
2) Levine never made amends. He never apologized. He never showed remorse. He sued for defamation.
3) Levine's life was not destroyed. He had a long, successful career, and a $3.5 million dollar bonus from the Met Opera at a time when its own musicians weren't being paid. The New York Times reported that he was supposed to conduct at Maggio Musicale in Italy, but that it was cancelled due to the pandemic.

In a just world his abuses would have been taken seriously when they occurred, and he would not have a career. Better the consequences come late, then not at all. You're no better than his enablers for making a comment like this.
posted by SansPoint at 3:29 PM on March 19, 2021 [15 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted; Twang, stop dismissing sexual assault and abuse of power as "youthful errors" and don't ever again say that holding abusers to account is "an error of at-least equal magnitude" to the original abuse.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 3:35 PM on March 19, 2021 [22 favorites]

I hope this isn't a derail and/or against guidelines: if anyone besides me is inclined to rage-donate, both the Met Orchestra Musicians and the Met Chorus Artists have active fundraising campaigns to help the performers who should have received money instead of Levine. (Links go to organization pages, not campaign pages.)
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 3:42 PM on March 19, 2021 [6 favorites]

Orange Dinosaur Slide: I just donated $25 to each.
posted by SansPoint at 3:48 PM on March 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

I'm so disgusted by the Met's approach to this. Think I might have to sit out the next season.

I've seen some lovely performances under his baton these last 30 (gulp) years. I don't care.
posted by praemunire at 11:41 PM on March 19, 2021

Darn him, and darn the MET, they ruined a lifetime of Met memories for me. So many Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons tainted. Should I throw out all the records/CDs?

I was looking forward to seeing something next season, but I'm going to pass. screw it.
posted by james33 at 4:48 AM on March 20, 2021

One of the best points Kenneth Woods makes in his piece is that, if Levine was so amazing, why did no other orchestras in the world ever try to hire him as music director? Only the Met (at 27) and the BSO (who absolutely should have known better, and all responsible for his hiring should be purged from that organization). I'm a conductor, weirdly enough, so my reactions to this are both as a human being and as a musician: Kenneth Woods is completely right. James Levine was an extremely (amazingly) skilled musician who created nothing--no notable interpretations that broke new ground, no new production techniques that helped opera adapt to the 21st century, no commissions that have added to the repertoire, nothing that one would expect the decades-long career of a "world-class" conductor to leave behind. Levine, professionally, was the ultimate 'stick in the sand,' as we sometimes say in our world (you know, there's a place for you as long as you're there, but as soon as you're gone it's like you were never there).

And then on top of that, HE WAS A MONSTER of a human being. I'm glad he's dead and the world is better without that psychopath in it. There simply is no art that merits human suffering.
posted by LooseFilter at 6:50 AM on March 20, 2021 [17 favorites]

This story is playing out at the same time that a pedophile in French literary culture is finally facing a reckoning (and as France itself wrestles with its legal and cultural complicity), and weeks after gymnastics coach John Geddert, who ran the gym where Larry Nassar abused hundreds of gymnasts, and was an abettor of that abuse, died by suicide rather than be arraigned for his own crimes against children.

I love that Kenneth Woods line, "James Levine was not a great man with a single tragic flaw. He was an almost completely horrible person, with a single, tragic talent." This is a shift in perspective we need to cultivate as we continue to deal with these kinds of men going forward, and as we struggle to create cultural shifts in belief so that we come to believe—and act on the belief—that freedom from abuse is a higher value than, say, a certain interpretation of an opera, or an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, or the perceived value of a certain book or books.
posted by Orlop at 7:31 AM on March 20, 2021 [16 favorites]

I actually studied opera, back in the day, and had quite a fine soprano voice. Levine was widely known as a fine conductor, especially of opera (as the article says), but there were probably at least 30 other conductors nearly as good who didn't need to prey and abuse children and vulnerable young men. Disgusting.

This is even worse than hearing that Domingo was a predator, too, and I found that crushing. Damn it, opera. Do better.

And yes, the economic pyramid of the opera world comes to a mighty sharp point. For every Levine, there are tens of thousands of young singers, young pianists, composers, conductors in the making who eagerly bounce out of the conservatory system every year, full of dreams and hopes and aspirations, only to give it up a few years later, because they have nowhere to go. Now, I'm fine with not having a career as a singer (although I wish my church would invite me to sing more often), but back then, I was fairly crushed.
posted by dancing_angel at 8:06 PM on March 21, 2021 [9 favorites]

Per the NYT the other day, the Met musicians reached a deal last week and will start receiving their paychecks for the first time since last April. (Other unions reached a deal in January and starting receiving their paychecks then.)
posted by Melismata at 2:42 PM on March 22, 2021 [4 favorites]

Melismata: Great news! Shame on Gelb for leaving them all in the cold for this long, though.
posted by SansPoint at 3:16 PM on March 22, 2021

But it is also a convention, some people feel that a genius has to be cruel and crazy, a polite genius is not a real genius.

Apparently, Dave Brubeck didn't fit that mold. So there's some hope there.
posted by suetanvil at 4:42 PM on March 22, 2021 [3 favorites]

I also want to take a moment, several days later, to highlight interglossa's link to Kenneth Woods's writing about this. I read it a week ago, it's lovely, and it keeps popping up in my brain, and I think will be with me a long time.

"James Levine was not a great man with a single tragic flaw. He was an almost completely horrible person, with a single, tragic talent."

is one of those mindblowingly clear statements of the problem that has reframed how I understand a BUNCH of shitty people. I feel a vast sense of relief to have the problem with some very talented-but-horrible artists so clearly and succinctly stated: They're not great men with one problem; they're walking problems with one single talent, and it's an utter tragedy that that talent is trapped in such a horrible person, and peoples lives will be destroyed for the sake of his talent. Like, he has crystallized a whole mess in my brain into a clear and comprehensible statement, and I can reframe a bunch of my own experiences with it, and I am incredibly grateful.

I also just want to note the detail from the Boston Globe that Levine thought he was more important than the Moon Landing, and said this to multiple people, and is there a more clear symbol of narcissism in the entire history of the world?
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:50 PM on March 24, 2021 [5 favorites]