Met Opera to investigate musical director over sexual abuse allegation
James Levine, a music director at the Met for 40 years, allegedly sexually abused a 15-year-old teenage boy in 1985.
In this file photo taken on September 4, 2007 shows US conductor James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing Hector Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" during a rehearsal at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.
The Metropolitan Opera announced Saturday it would investigate claims that its longtime music director sexually abused a teenage boy three decades ago.
"We are deeply disturbed by the news articles that are being published online today about James Levine," said the New York house, one of the world's most prestigious opera companies.
We are deeply disturbed by the news articles that are being published online today about James Levine. We are working on an investigation w outside resources to determine whether charges of sexual misconduct in the 1980s are true, so that we can take appropriate action.
— Metropolitan Opera (@MetOpera) December 3, 2017
Levine's accuser, now middle-aged, contacted the police department in Lake Forest, Illinois, in October of 2016 to report that he'd had sexual contact with the conductor when he was under age 18.
"At the time, Mr Levine said that the charges were completely false, and we relied upon the further investigation of the police," the Met said, referring to last year's police report.
The report indicated Levine's alleged abuse of the unnamed man began in 1985 when he was 15, according to The New York Times and New York Post.
The alleged victim said the encounters continued until 1993, some of them taking place in New York, and that Levine gave him $50,000 in cash over the years when he was having financial problems, the Post said.
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