James Levine (1943-2021) American Conductor

James Levine (1943-2021) American conductor
James Levine
Birth 23 Jun 1943
Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA
Death 9 Mar 2021 (aged 77)
Palm Springs, Riverside County, California, USA
Burial Details Unknown
Conductor and Pianist

He was one of the most important operatic conductors of the 20th century. He is primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera (the “Met”), a position he held for 40 years (1976–2016).

Levine conducted the first-ever Met performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani, I Lombardi and Stiffelio, Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Moses und Aron, Berg’s Lulu, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, as well as the world premieres of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby.

He also served as musical director of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Boston Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic. He conducted regularly in Europe at the Salzburg Festival, the Bayreuth Festival, and the Verbier Festival. He recorded extensively.