All the underage black kids in Palm Springs can now breathe a sigh of relief. Flawed doesn’t even begin to describe him or that whole world. I grew up in it.
He made his friends call him Maestro and loved to vacation in Tuscanny.
(Sorry).
I'm a casual fan of the opera and hear a lot of the Levine performances on the Sirius Met Opera channel.
I think I saw him conduct at the Met during a performance of Tosca, sometime in October of 1989. It was the finest Opera production I have ever seen. The sets were amazing, including the use of the “elevator stage”, where the set for the dungeon lowers, and the set and background art for the top of the fortress in Rome comes down, during which cast members ascend up stairs in real time. Incredible, at least I thought so.
It was widely known for decades that he abused boys and young men.
Prayers for his soul.
I have insider info about his incompetence at conducting and saw it first hand. When John Corigliano wrote his opera for the Met, “The Ghosts of Versailles” , one of his requirements was to have Steven Mercurio do all of the rehearsals. It usually takes 2 years for a new opera to actually get performed. John didn’t trust Joe to pull it off. At the premier at the met, you could see poor Joe trying to cue the orchestra at the wrong places. The orchestra was so well rehearsed that they could ignore him. Credit to Steven for his great work. Also Julie Taymor did the large puppets and the assisted in the stagework.
There is no question he was brilliant at the Met, but he was also a monster. If it were just young men, he would have been just another lecherous old guy who abused his power. Not acceptable and unfair to men who wouldn’t put out in exchange for a leg up, but unfortunately also pretty common. But he also liked boys and so much so that he frequently went overseas for them. There is no excusing that. Truly evil.
Vaccine?
Brilliant musician but an evil evil man, what he got away with.
Now he is de-composing