I wouldn’t say that. Perhaps he was the greatest American conductor of our times, but I wouldn’t put him at the top worldwide over greats like Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Herbert von Karajan, etc. Even the new guy at the Met Nezet-Seguin is at least Levine’s equal from what I’ve heard from him so far. But, yes, Levine was very talented and did wonders with the Met orchestra. That doesn’t excuse his grooming and “casting couching” teenage boys.
I was always a little uneasy attending his performances because I heard “the rumors” about him almost as soon as I first learned who he was. I had hoped that he wouldn’t be kept in such a prominent position if the rumors were true. I believe in separating art from artists, esp. when there are numerous artists involved in a work, so I won’t be trashing any of his recordings I have, but he should have been punished for what he did many decades ago.
Leopold Stokowski, George Solti. And in a different venue, so to speak, John Williams and especially Ennio Morricone. Bernstein, even.
Love Muti. Had the pleasure of meeting him when an Italian-speaking association I once belonged to had him as a banquet guest, and we all got to go by his chair and speak to him. He was weary but tolerant of our awful American Italian pronunciations, I must say.