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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 12:48 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:39 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: James Levine passed away over a week ago - ryhog 10:33 am EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| No real outpouring of grief so far for someone who loomed so large in his field and in NY life for years and years. Rumors of his malfeasance were talked about for years. He certainly got the orchestra in tip-top shape. He also kept out some other really great conductors over the years; friends at the Met told me he was rather on pins and needles backstage and during rehearsals when the great Carlos Kleiber conducted years ago. Levine, while being an excellent conductor, pretty much hogged a big percentage of the conducting duties, premieres, new productions, etc. and by having mostly lesser, non-name conductors on the staff, looked better by comparison. A few of the Met ushers were quite opinionated about him: "Oh, when he conducts, it's going to be loud and slow". Perhaps a bit simplistic in its criticism, but kind of true, especially in Wagner. The orchestra did sound great though. It's really hard to temper my appreciation for his mastery of so many different operas and his accomplishments with what was going on, not only with the sexual accusations, but also with his political stuff in running the place. For instance, he apparently used to make promises of the same role to different people, and let someone else take the blame for one person finally getting it. He let his friend Kathleen Battle basically terrorize the place, until General Manager Joe Volpe was then in charge and had enough of her finally to fire her when she insulted in front of the company his good friend Rosalind Elias. It's going to be interesting now to hear more stories coming out shortly about stuff behind the scenes, especially from retired singers. There was plenty of stuff being said while he was still conducting there. Even Liz Smith, the gossip columnist years ago, without naming him, but very clear about who she was referring to, in print, mentioned that the board of Lincoln Center was getting sick and tired of bailing out with a lot of money one of their top people for being arrested and other offenses. This was in the '80s! Why the powers that be didn't do something then to rectify the situation is rather shameful. I hope the Met comes back stronger than ever, but it's going to be a really big challenge. |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:02 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - PlayWiz 12:39 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| Thanks for your thoughts on this, PlayWiz. I believe I had heard or read somewhere before that Battle having publicly insulted Elias was the last straw. Without getting too gossipy, can you provide any details on that? Of course, Elias was a highly respected Met artist of very long standing, so I'm not at all surprised that any such insult to her would have resulted in dismissal. | |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 05:21 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 05:05 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - Michael_Portantiere 03:02 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| I used to know her manager, introduced by a friend, a very nice man. I once asked about her, and he rather diplomatically told me that she was "challenging". Talking about some repertoire she was featuring and doing around then, he told me the Met didn't want to pay her full star salary for Despina by then (she had done it before she became a big star) in "Cosi Fan Tutte" because her part was considered the terza donna (3rd lady) in that opera, almost secondary character. I think her light lyric rep was a bit limiting in what the Met considered prima donna roles, even though she was well-known. Zerbinetta in "Ariadne auf Naxos" Rosina in "Barber of Seville", Susanna in "Marriage of Figaro" and Adina in "Elixir of Love" with Pavarotti were among her leading roles that the Met considered her worth their salary top. "Daughter" would have been too, had she not been fired from it. There were plenty of stories I had heard and read about her back then. There apparently was an incident that season, not long before the firing, that someone informed me about. At a full orchestral rehearsal with Christian Thielemann conducting, Battle stopped to either argue or confer with the conductor over tempi or some other issues, when that is not the proper time to do so, with the whole orchestra being paid and waiting. I don't know how many times she stopped what he was trying to do, but apparently he had it, since at one point he's reputed to have said "Get the cover!" (the understudy) and she stormed off. There were reports that she told people not to look at her ON STAGE when she was rehearsing, as people looking at her was making her nervous. There's the possibly true and infamous one about her calling her manager on her phone from her limo or car to ask him to telephone her driver to turn off the air conditioning or some other ridiculous demand. But all this was building up to the firing. Apparently Levine didn't do anything about her up to this time, since she was a friend of his. But then Joe Volpe ascended to actually running the Met after Levine had left the position of General Manager to only be Music Director. Regarding the firing, i believe they were rehearsing "Daughter of the Regiment" which she had previously at the time just done at San Francisco Opera; folks there had t-shirts apparently proclaiming "We Survived the [Kathleen] Battle!". I think Joe Volpe finally stepped in either at or following a Sitzprobe where Battle just said something really mean directed at Elias. I don't know what was said. But Rosalind Elias was, as you said, a beloved member of the Met family for many years, as well as a close friend of Joe Volpe. Volpe fired Battle, and it was probably the biggest firing headlines from the Met since Maria Callas, given Battle's fame at the time and her close relationship to Levine. |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: larry13 09:39 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - PlayWiz 05:05 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| And, re her Susanna in "Figaro," there was the time--years and years before she was fired--when she threw all the belongings of Carol Vaness(the Countess)out of Vaness' dressing room because Battle thought SHE should have been assigned the "#1" ladies dressing room. Talk about a toxic workplace. And, probably because of Levine, this was allowed. | |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: Zelgo 10:34 am EDT 03/19/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - larry13 09:39 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| It seems that the MET's firing of Battle gave courage to all the other great opera houses to stop booking her. Did Battle ever appear on stage anywhere in an opera after that? |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: larry13 11:25 am EDT 03/19/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - Zelgo 10:34 am EDT 03/19/21 | |
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| I've always read that she never ever appeared again in a staged opera anywhere in the world. It is a bit amazing to me that it took the Met(finally)firing her for all these other opera houses to stop hiring her, no matter what they'd had to endure during earlier engagements. |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 11:35 am EDT 03/19/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - larry13 11:25 am EDT 03/19/21 | |
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| "It is a bit amazing to me that it took the Met (finally) firing her for all these other opera houses to stop hiring her, no matter what they'd had to endure during earlier engagements." Agreed. I guess it speaks to human nature, and doesn't speak very well of it at all :-( |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 05:57 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - PlayWiz 05:05 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| Thanks! :-) | |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: ryhog 12:48 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - PlayWiz 12:39 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| well Liz got it wrong in at least one respect. ...unless she was referring to something else. LOL |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:52 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - ryhog 12:48 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| I'm not sure how she got it wrong. I don't remember her specific language, but it was pretty clear to whom she was referring, certainly to those following classical music at the time. I think it was in the NY Daily News. | |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Posted by: ryhog 01:03 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - PlayWiz 12:52 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| I wasn't questioning that the reference was to him, but she said the Lincoln Center board and it would have been the Met board. (And had it been the LC board, it would have been someone else.) Just me being picky about gossip that doesn't pay close attention to the details. :-) | |
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| re: James Levine passed away over a week ago | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 01:27 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 01:13 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
| In reply to: re: James Levine passed away over a week ago - ryhog 01:03 pm EDT 03/17/21 | |
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| It was a long time ago, and I forget the language she used. It was about someone prominent who had been arrested and some group/board of people with money and power pondering whether to continue making payments for this particular person. I'm pretty certain she named Lincoln Center (and/or one of the great cultural institutions in NYC) in some capacity, but not the Met specifically. | |
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