In Memoriam James Levine
Aspen, Colorado. Summer 1964
Across from the Mountain Chalet, the domicile that housed students at the Aspen Music School, there is a park. Every Sunday, just after the dress rehearsal for the afternoon concert, a group of musicians would gather for the weekly softball game. Those not physically participating would sit on a little hill, watching the proceedings and hoping no one would break anything.
Among these spectators was the ever-young Jimmy Levine. I have no idea if he had any interest in the sport, but he certainly loved the attention paid to him as well as the banter and joke telling. All of us had a sort of reverence for him, as he was the wunderkind in so many arenas. At one moment, he might be playing sonatas with Lynn Harrell, at another leading an incandescent performance of Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as page turning for his piano teacher, Rosina Lhevinne, as she made her way through a Mozart concerto.
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James Levine, who ruled four decades over Metropolitan Opera, dead at 77
Levine became one of the signature artists in the companyâs century-plus history. He was eased aside for health reasons and later fired for sexual improprieties.
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James Levine conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in July 2006. Levine died March 9 in Palm Springs, Calif., of natural causes, his physician said. [ MICHAEL DWYER ]
Updated Mar. 17
NEW YORK â Conductor James Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for more than four decades before being eased aside when his health declined and then was fired for sexual improprieties, has died. He was 77.
Levine died March 9 in Palm Springs, Calif., of natural causes, his physician of 17 years, Dr. Len Horovitz, said Wednesday.
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FILE: James Levine conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra on its opening night performance at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. on July 7, 2006. Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for 4 1/2 decades before being eased out when his health declined and then fired for sexual improprieties, died March 9, 2021 in Palm Springs, Calif., of natural causes, his physician of 17 years, Dr. Len Horovitz, said Wednesday, March 17. He was 77. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
NEW YORK (AP) Conductor James Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for more than four decades before being eased aside when his health declined and then was fired for sexual improprieties, has died. He was 77.