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.
James Levine
Дата рождения
23.06.1943
Дата смерти
09.03.2021
Профессия
дирижёр, пианист
Страна
США
Американский пианист и дирижёр, с 1976 по 2016 год — художественный руководитель театра Метрополитен-опера.
Родился в 1943 г. в Цинциннати, штат Огайо, в музыкальной семье. Брать уроки музыки начал с раннего детства, в 10 лет дебютировал в качестве концертного пианиста, исполнив фортепианный концерт № 2 Мендельсона. Учился у Вальтера Левина, основателя и первой скрипки Ласалль-квартета, Рудольфа Серкина и Розины Левиной. В 1964 году окончил Джульярдскую школу в Нью-Йорке, с 1964 по 1965 гг. был ассистентом Джорджа Селла, руководителя Кливлендского оркестра, а затем, до 1970 года – вторым дирижёром оркестра. В 1970 дебютировал как приглашенный дирижёр с Филадельфийским оркестром, Оперой Сан-Франциско и Уэльской национальной оперой. С 1965 по 1972 преподавал в Кливлендском музыкальном институте, в летние месяцы работал в музыкальной школе Мидоу-Брук в штате Мичиган и на фестивале «Равиния» в Иллинойсе, музыкальным руководителем которого был с 1973 по 1993 год.
Дебютировал в Метрополитен-опере 5 июня 1971 года («Тоска» Пуччини), в феврале 1972 был назначен главным дирижёром театра, а в 1976 стал его музыкальным руководителем. Под руководством Ливайна оркестр Метрополитен-оперы значительно расширил звукозаписывающую и концертную деятельность, а сам Ливайн стал одним из наиболее востребованных мировых дирижёров. В Метрополитен-опере Ливайн провёл более 2500 спектаклей, с коллективом театра выступал на многочисленных зарубежных гастролях и сделал огромное количество аудио- и видеозаписей. В 1999 году, на праздновании 25-летнего юбилея театра, дирижировал мировой премьерой оперы Джона Харбисона «Великий Гэтсби», специально заказанной к этому событию.
В 1980 году основал молодёжную программу Метрополитен-оперы, в которой стажировались многие известные американские певцы. В 2001 году стал главным дирижёром Бостонского симфонического оркестра и директором Тэнглвудского музыкального центра в Массачусетсе, где давал мастер-классы, дирижировал студенческим оркестром и руководил оперными постановками. С 1999 по 2006 – музыкальный руководитель студенческого Фестивального оркестра Вербье (Швейцария).
Ливайн не ограничивал свою деятельность работой в США и в качестве приглашённого дирижёра регулярно выступал с такими европейскими оркестрами, как Венский филармонический, Берлинский филармонический, Лондонский филармонический, Саксонская государственная капелла. Также выступал на Байрёйтском фестивале и с 1994 по 2004 руководил Мюнхенским филармоническим оркестром.
Публикации
Продолжение беседы Бориса Блоха и Николая Овчинникова 07.08.2020 в 17:06
Волчий билет для Пласидо Доминго (operanews.ru) 30.09.2019 в 22:07
Пласидо Доминго разорвал контракт с Метрополитен-опера (operanews.ru) 28.09.2019 в 01:09
«Снегурочка» и «Волшебная флейта» для больших мальчиков и девочек 24.01.2018 в 22:02
«Тангейзер» и «Лулу» продолжили сезон трансляций из «Met» 29.12.2015 в 17:31
От «Макбета» до «Мейстерзингеров» 23.12.2014 в 22:11
Трансляция «Свадьбы Фигаро» из Мет 22.11.2014 в 15:15
Метрополитен-опера открывает новый сезон «Свадьбой Фигаро» (operanews.ru) 06.10.2014 в 16:36
О новом сезоне трансляций из «Метрополитен» 06.09.2014 в 17:56
«Так поступают все». Трансляция из «Метрополитен-оперы» 20.05.2014 в 17:41
Сезон лучших голосов (operanews.ru) 19.05.2014 в 14:32
«Фальстаф» в Метрополитен-опера (operanews.ru) 19.01.2014 в 20:06
«Фальстаф» в киносезоне прямых трансляций из «Метрополитен» 04.01.2014 в 18:18
Джеймс Ливайн в Москве 30.10.2003 в 20:26
Джеймс Ливайн: «Я восхищаюсь русскими музыкантами» 23.10.2003 в 20:09
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.
