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James Levine, Former Met Opera Maestro, Is Useless at 77

James Levine, Former Met Opera Maestro, Is Dead at 77

James Levine, the leading maestro of the Metropolitan Opera for more than 40 years and one of the world’s most influential and admired conductors until allegations of sexual abuse and harassment ended his career, died on March 9th in Palm Springs, California. He was 77 years old.

His death was announced on Wednesday morning by his doctor, Dr. Len Horovitz confirmed. The cause was not released immediately.

After the Met investigated reports of Mr. Levine’s sexual inadequacies with younger men that spanned decades, the Met initially suspended him and dismissed him in 2018, a steep fall from grace. Mr. Levine filed a defamation lawsuit.

Before the scandal arose, he was a popular maestro who for decades helped define the Met, the country’s largest performing arts organization, expand its repertoire, and polish its world-class orchestra. And his work went way beyond this company. Starting in 2004, he was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for seven years, and in its early seasons was highly praised for reviving this prestigious ensemble, promoting contemporary music and commissioning major works by living composers.

Mr. Levine was also music director of the Munich Philharmonic for five years (1999-2004). He had longstanding connections with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as music director of the Ravinia Festival for more than 20 years.

His last years as a maestro were marked by health crises, including a cancerous growth in his kidney and surgery to repair a rotator cuff after he stumbled on stage at Boston Symphony Hall in 2006. The problems forced Mr. Levine to miss weeks. even months of performing. In March 2011, faced with the reality, he resigned from his post in Boston.

A full obituary will be released shortly.

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Paris Opera to Act on Racist Stereotypes in Ballet

Paris Opera to Act on Racist Stereotypes in Ballet

The announcements may seem straightforward, but the conversation about the Paris Opera and diversity has already caused a stir in France this year.

In December, an article in Le Monde magazine, the daily newspaper, caused a stir when it suggested Neef was considering banning problematic works. At one point the article discussed the “aesthetic choices” of Rudolf Nureyev, the star Russian ballet dancer who directed the Paris Opera Ballet for much of the 1980s. Some of its productions, which the company still performs, originally featured dancers in black and yellow, and although they are no longer presented that way, some sequences, like the “Chinese Dance” in its “Nutcracker,” still seem to viewers to be regarded as insensitive.

“Some works will undoubtedly disappear from the repertoire,” Neef was quoted as saying.

This comment, which Neef later said was taken out of context, was picked up by Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally Party, who wrote on Twitter that it was an example of “insane anti-racism.” It also sparked a debate in the media and online about whether the focus on diversity was a sign of creeping Americanization.

Neef said he wasn’t concerned about a similar reaction to the new report. “We are not here to promote a climate of censorship or dictatorial leadership,” he said. “The whole point of this initiative is that we want to perform opera and ballet by artists of the 21st century for the audience of the 21st century.”

It was clear, however, that the excitement had an impact on how the report was drafted. “I expect protest from the far-right and the most conservative politicians and intellectuals, and say it is once again about the Americanization of French culture,” said Ndiaye. He wrote it carefully to ward off these reactions, he added.

The Paris Opera isn’t the only ballet company in Europe involved in racial debates. Last year Chloé Lopes Gomes, the only black dancer at the Berlin State Ballet, made global headlines when she complained about racism in the company. In 2019, Misty Copeland, an African-American director at the American Ballet Theater, complained about the use of blackface at the Bolshoi in Moscow, although many in Russia defended its use, arguing that it wasn’t racist because it was the way it was classic Ballets have always been performed in the country.

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Elijah Moshinsky, Met Opera Director With Fanciful Contact, Dies at 75

Elijah Moshinsky, Met Opera Director With Fanciful Touch, Dies at 75

His anti-picture-book concept with a strong set turned out to be more effective for the powerfully voiced, dramatically volatile Mr. Vickers. The production (which can be seen on video) and the performance of Mr. Vickers were triumphs and changed the general understanding of opera.

The next year Peter Hall, director of the National Theater in London, invited Mr. Moshinsky to direct a production of Thomas Bernhard’s play “The Force of Habit,” which Mr. Moshinsky described as a comedic parable in the BBC interview with a “group of circus performers.” tries to play Schubert’s “Forellen” quintet, but can’t. ” The production was a dismal failure and only lasted six performances.

But that same year, Mr. Moshinsky found his booth with an acclaimed production of Berg’s “Wozzeck” for the Adelaide Festival, presented by the Australian Opera (now Opera Australia). In the following years he directed more than 15 productions for the company, including “Boris Godunov”, “Werther”, “Dialogues des Carmélites” and “Don Carlos”. At the Royal Opera he presented remarkable productions of “Lohengrin”, “Tannhaüser” and “The Rake’s Progress” as well as some Verdi rarities, including “Stiffelio” and “Attila”.

Mr. Moshinsky met Ruth Dyttman in 1967 during a Melbourne Youth Theater production of Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”. He designed the sets; She was in the cast. They married in 1970. Ms. Dyttman, a lawyer, survived him along with their two sons Benjamin and Jonathan and his brothers Sam and Nathan.

Mr. Moshinsky was an active theater director and worked at the National Theater, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and other institutions. He has directed several productions for the BBC television series of Shakespeare’s plays, including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with a cast of Helen Mirren, Robert Lindsay and Nigel Davenport.

It was an enchanting production, wrote John O’Connor in a 1982 review for The Times, that “fully captured every important aspect of the play, from royal romp to hilarious comedy, from threatening rumblings in the woods to joyful celebrations.”