Since the late 1970s, James Levine dominated the Metropolitan Opera in New York with powers far exceeding those of any other music director in the history of that institution. He is credited with the total rejuvenation of the chorus and orchestra, and raising the Met’s standard of artistic performance to unprece-dentedly high levels.
Levine was born on June 23, 1943, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of a dance band conductor and an actress. He was a child prodigy on the piano, and at the age of ten, played Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Cincinnati Symphony during a youth concert. Levine commuted to the Juilliard School of Music in New York from Cincinnati every other week for piano lessons with the famed teacher, Rosina Lhevinne, and eventually enrolled there. At age 13, a summer spent at Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro School for musicians in Vermont changed Levine’s aspirations from solo piano to conducting. He studied chamber music at Juilliard under Walter Levin (as a classmate of Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman), and became a full-time conducting student of Jean Morel. He spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival, where he accompanied the class of the operatic soprano, Jennie Tourel.
After graduation from the Juilliard School, Levine became Georg Szell’s assistant at the Cleveland Orchestra and continued in that post for six years, while at the same time conducting the student orchestra at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was then invited to conduct a single performance of PUCCINI’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on June 5, 1971, during the post-season period. In 1972, Levine conducted a performance of Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Met, replacing Fausto Cleva, who had died unexpectedly. Goren Gentele, the Met’s general manager, was so impressed by the 29-year old Levine that he offered him a position as principal conductor. Five years later, after Gentele was killed in an automobile accident, Levine was appointed music director. In 1986, he was given the first Artistic Directorship of the Metropolitan, with broad powers over artistic decisions and musical responsibilities.
In 1972, Levine temporarily returned to his home town of Cincinnati when the choral conductor Robert Shaw invited him to perform at the May Festival. Levine conducted a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (the “Symphony of a Thousand” with vastly augmented choir), and was subsequently made director of the festival from 1974–78. He had earlier become music director of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, in 1972.
At the Met, Levine’s clear respect for his musicians had a beneficial effect on their performances, and the improvement was noticed by critics. Levine was responsible for introducing Francis POULENC’S Dialogues of the Carmelites and Alban BERG’S Lulu into the repertoire, as well as operas by Benjamin BRITTEN, Kurt WEILL, and Richard STRAUSS. In 1996, Levine commissioned John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles to celebrate the Met’s 100th anniversary.
Levine has been a guest conductor throughout the world, with a special relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been piano accompanist for many of the Met’s singers in recital, and in 1997 completed a popular 14-country tour, conducting with the “Three Tenors,” Luciano PAVAROTTI, Placido DOMINGO, and Jose Carreras.
Jane Prendergast
SEE ALSO:
OPERA; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Chesterman, Robert, ed. Conductors in Conversation (London: Robson, 1990);
Hart, Philip. Condnctors: A New Generation (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1983);
March, Robert C. Dialogues and Discoveries (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1998).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1–5;
Bellini: Norma; Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1;
Mahler: Symphony No. 7;
Mozart: Die Zauberflote;
Violin Concertos Nos. 3 and 5; Puccini: Tosca;
Schumann: Symphonies Pvos. 1–4;
Verdi: La Traviata.