Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

James Levine Fired By Metropolitan Opera Over Sex Harassment Claims

New York’s Metropolitan Opera said on Monday that it had fired its longtime conductor and musical director James Levine after an inquiry found “credible evidence” to support accusations against him of sexual misconduct.

The Met suspended Levine, 74, in December after several accusations of sexual misconduct stretching from the 1960s to 1980s. At the time, he was serving as music director emeritus and artistic director of its young artist program at the Met.

The Metropolitan Opera said in a statement on Monday that an independent inquiry had “uncovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine had engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct” before and during his time at the company.

“In light of these findings, the Met concludes that it would be inappropriate and impossible for Mr. Levine to continue to work at the Met,” it said in the statement.

Levine, who served as the Met’s musical director for 40 years until he retired from that position in 2016, has denied the accusations. His representative did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.