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 Dr. Len Horovitz, his personal
physician, said Levine died on March 9 in Palm
Springs, California, of "natural causes."
The maestro, known for his wild hair and
bespectacled face, was long revered by the Met's
audiences, singers and symphony-sized orchestra
at America's cathedral of opera whose standards
he helped place among the highest in the world.
Levine, considered the foremost American
conductor of his time and perhaps the most
celebrated since Leonard Bernstein, led about
2,500 performances of more than 80 different
operas since his Met debut in 1971, more than
anyone else since it was founded in 1880. He
also conducted some of the major orchestras of
America and Europe, most notably the Munich
Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He stepped down as music director in 2016 after
struggling with health problems, but was fired
in 2018 from his reduced role with the Met after
three men accused him of abusing them as
teenagers as far back as 1968.
Levine and the Met, the largest performing arts
organization in the United States, reached an
out-of-court settlement in 2019 resolving his
lawsuit accusing the company of breach of
contract and defamation and the company's
countersuit. The settlement called for him to
get $3.5 million.
Peter Gelb, the Met general manager who made the
decision to part ways with Levine, called the
outcome "a tragedy." Levine called the
accusations "unfounded" and said he was not "an
oppressor or an aggressor."
Levine worked with the greatest opera singers of
his era including Luciano Pavarotti, Placido
Domingo, Renee Fleming, Anna Netrebko, Marilyn
Horne, Jessye Norman, Samuel Ramey, Kathleen
Battle, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel,
Roberto Alagna, Kiri Te Kanawa, Cecilia Bartoli,
Renata Scotto, Leontyne Price and Grace Bumbry.
"He is one of the greatest artists of all time.
He has created one of the greatest orchestras in
modern history. He may be one of the greatest
opera conductors who ever lived," Gelb told the
New York Times in 2011.
Levine was respected for his conducting
abilities, his penchant for eliciting the finest
performances from musicians and his endless
enthusiasm.
A traditionalist, he conducted sparkling
performances of venerable operas by composers
including Verdi, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini and
Wagner, as well as new compositions. A piano
prodigy, Levine remained active as a keyboard
recitalist. He worked to create an exceptional
rapport with his musicians.
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 During his career, he was
bothered by health problems, notably a series of
back operations. This forced him to cut back on
performances and conduct while sitting down. He
injured his spine in a fall while on vacation in
2011 that required surgery and left him
partially paralyzed.
Complications related to Parkinson's disease
prompted Levine in 2016 to step down as the
Met's full-time music director and become music
director emeritus, a position in which he would
still conduct. His later suspension and
dismissal ended that arrangement.
"I sometimes say that music chose me because I
can't remember my life without it," Levine said
in a PBS documentary. "I feel music gave me a
real continuum of creative, constructive life.
... As I look around at other professions in the
world, it seems that to have a life in music is
the most beautiful life I could imagine."
Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1943. He
made his debut as a piano soloist at age 10 with
the Cincinnati Symphony. After studying at the
Juilliard school of music in New York, he was
invited in 1963 to serve as assistant conductor
of the Cleveland Orchestra under prominent
conductor George Szell.
He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1971,
conducting Puccini's Tosca. He was appointed the
Met's principal conductor in 1973, its musical
director in 1975 and was given the expanded role
of artistic director in 1986.
"The crisis of how to enact opera onstage
visually has some alarming facets," Levine once
told New York magazine. "I'm referring to
productions the composer and librettist would
denounce. I'm speaking of a production that uses
a piece instead of presents the piece. People
will say, 'Oh, Jimmy, he's so fanatic.' ... But
there are so many contemporary productions that
just destroy the piece, for nothing."
From 1996 to 2000, he also led more than a dozen
concerts on the popular "Three Tenors World
Tour," with Domingo, Pavarotti and Jose
Carreras.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Richard
Chang and Howard Goller)
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