As with two of the three men who previously came forward, Albin Ifsich says the abuse occurred more than four decades ago, when he was 20 and a student at the Meadow Brook summer music school in Michigan, where Levine was teaching. “He said that the abuse continued for several years after he joined a tight-knit clique of young musicians who followed Mr. Levine in Cleveland and later New York.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why James Levine Is Doomed, Whatever The Facts Behind The Sex-Abuse Allegations Are
With rumors having circulated for so many years, “it will come to the surprise of no one if tiny skeletons come tumbling out of James Levine’s closet like candy from a piñata. At the same time, if any and all of those accusations were to be untrue, no one would stop for a second to consider that an allegation is hardly proof. … And since you can’t prove a negative (or innocence, really), James Levine is now absolutely damned, because it’s just too convenient and all-too-plausible to believe what is being reported.”
New York City Ballet Boss Peter Martins Accused Of Sexual Harassment
The School of American Ballet said in a statement that it “recently received an anonymous letter making general, nonspecific allegations of sexual harassment in the past by Peter Martins at both New York City Ballet and the school. … Thus far, our investigation has not substantiated the allegations in the letter.” Several former dancers say that “Mr. Martins was known for sleeping with dancers, some of whom received better roles because of their personal relationships with him.”
Glyndebourne Opera Boss Departs After Less Than Two Years
Sebastian F. Schwarz, who became general director of the English “country-house opera” festival in May 2016, basically said (in the euphemistic way of such statements) that he isn’t cut out for running a private, non-state-funded company.
Shashi Kapoor, Star Of Bollywood And Merchant-Ivory Films, Dead At 79
A second-generation member of one the Hindi cinema’s leading families, he was one of the busiest actors in the world in the 1970s and ’80s, starring in well over 100 Bollywood productions. His English-language career, begun alongside wife Jennifer Kendal for Merchant-Ivory, ranged from Shakespeare Wallah through Heat and Dust and Siddhartha to The Deceivers and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.
Turmoil At Royal New Zealand Ballet As Nearly Half Of Dancers Leave
“It’s understood close to half of the current 36 dancers employed by the national ballet company will have left by the new year, not all by choice – less than six months after a new artistic director took over. It’s the second year in a row the national ballet company … has gone through an artistic upheaval.”
Minnesota Opera Artistic Director To Retire After 23 Years
Dale Johnson, alongside longtime president Kevin Smith, saw the company through more than one crisis and led it to become one of the most admired regional opera houses in the country, one with a special emphasis on producing new work.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.04.17
Bug, Trapped
A hapless grasshopper found itself in the news not too long ago because it was trapped, a permanent visitor to a one-painting museum called Olive Trees. You may have wondered, as I did, … read more
AJBlog: Out There Published 2017-12-03
Bit by bit
“You’re not going to watch this, are you?” he asked in apparent amazement when I showed up for the first tech rehearsal. “Watching tech is like watching paint dry.” Maybe so, but I was in the house for every minute of both rehearsals, and found them … well, not exactly thrilling, but completely involving. I’ve been watching tech – all of it – ever since. … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-12-04
Monday Recommendation: Preminger’s Meditations
Noah Preminger, Meditations On Freedom (Dry Bridge Records)
Tenor saxophonist and composer Preminger timed the release of this album for the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-12-04
What Exactly Are The Ballets Trockadero Parodying?
“New Yorker critic Arlene Croce [once] asserted that the Trocks weren’t addressing gender roles, but ballet roles, an altogether different topic: ‘a ballerina isn’t a woman but an abstraction of one.’ This distinction is politically and analytically useful: It aligns the Trocks squarely with high art, and makes clear that they aren’t – as some critics have said drag does – making fun of women. But it’s also wishfully tidy.”
John Waters Gave A Commencement Speech That Went Viral And Became A Book – Then What Happened?
“I thought I could get in this racket. I thought I’d be turning down three and four speeches a year. Not one other school has asked me to do it! I was just amazed. I thought that I would have a whole other career here doing them and, come May, I would be working for two weeks straight. But not a one asked me, not even a prison school.”