Levine, an opera conductor raised by Pavarotti and Domingo, dies

“He performed with literally every opera singer for half a century.” This is a sentence written by the New York Metropolitan Opera (Matt) in memory of conductor James Levine on the 17th (local time). Levine passed away on the 9th and this was known on the 17th. The New York Times said, “The reason for the late news of death has not been announced.” 77 years old.

Levine was a conductor who created and led the heyday of American opera. For 47 years from 1971 to 2018, he directed more than 2,500 opera stages as Music and Artistic Director of the Met. Various works, from Mozart in the 18th century to Schoenberg in the 20th century, have been settled as representative works of Met.

He was an opera conductor with no competitors. At the age of two, he was a gifted man who listened to piano music and differentiated the pitch, and he saved the drama of the opera with his sensitive sense. Tenor late Luciano Pavarotti said in the past, “I learn from Levine the energy of musical expression that cannot be learned anywhere else. I’ve never been as lyrical and sad as I was singing with him,” the Washington Post reported. The newspaper also said that Placido Domingo said, “Even if other places offer four or five times the performance fee, they choose the stage to sing with Jimmy (Levine).”

The second half of the 20th century, when Levine led the Met, was the heyday of operas and singers. Levine, along with Pavarotti, Domingo, and Jose Carreras, has led the’Three Tenor’ performance since 1996, gaining a world-renowned music fan. In 2000, he appeared with Mickey Mouse in Disney’s musical animation’Fantasia 2000′, contrasting with the authoritative appearance of previous generations of conductors.

His fame fell with’Me Too’. In December 2017, four men exposed allegations of Levine sexual harassment in an American media interview. It was said that they had been sexually assaulted in 1968 when they were in their teens, and Met fired Levine in 2018. The Met Opera announced his death. After three months of investigation by an external committee, he had no choice but to fire him.” Levine’s last mat stage was the Verdi Requiem performance on December 2, 2017.

Reporter Kim Ho-jeong [email protected]