11/9/2023 0 Comments Encore shoes cincinnatiThere have, however, been changes in the guest conductor business. "But I must say, it's nonsense, because we try very hard to get great conductors to come in. Why should I stay (at the Met) if I don't conduct? My choice is simple: I can be an absentee director, in which caase they'll say 'where is he?' Or I can stay here and conduct, and they'll say 'but he conducts too much.' "I'm a conductor," Levine explained patiently. This has been pointedly pointed out occasionally in New York, where the fans like to see famous guest conductors, too. Saturday before last, for example, he was seen on national prime-time TV conducting "Don Carlo." While that was being broadcast, he was in fact conducting live at the Met that afternoon, he also conducted and Monday night, he led his orchestra, chorus and singers personally through five hours of Richard Wagner's "Parsifal," which even he concedes is the most exhausting piece in the repertory. His fingers have to be pried off the baton just to get him out of the orchestra pit. ![]() It is an understatement to say that Levine likes to conduct. It gets a rest, and then we'll start working on it again." But these two "Otellos" we're doing in Washington are actually the last for four years - we won't do that one again until the 1984-85 season. If I thought mine were getting worse, I would stop. Every one should be better, or at least different. You finish conducting one, and you just want to start all over again."Īn opera that Levine has done over and over again is Verdi's "Otello." "There's no way you're going to do that one in any single performance. Maybe it's that there are certain kinds of music that the more you give it, the more it gives you. ![]() "It's kind of hard, because of course opera is at the same time instrumental music, vocal music, drama, poetry, acting, dancing, the whole theatrical panorama of human emotions, human drama, human comedy. ![]() He can still discuss, without sentimentality or cynicism, why he likes opera. Levine, however, is about as loof as you can get - and still have 100 uncut opera scores committed to memory, a high-profile administrative and artistic position, tempermental opera singers to deal with, and four new productions a year to stage. behind that cold, austere, exterior there beats a heart of stone." The aloof Bing retired eight years ago at age 71, after 22 years as general manager. For many years, the Met was run by Sir Rudolph Bing, a man of whom Cyril Ritchard reportedly said, "Don't be misled. Critical notices for Levine's conducting there have been very favorable. Bliss in charge of money, and Britain's John Dexter in charge of the physical production of new works, the Met - deep in the red in recent years - broke into the black in 1977-78, and has remained there despite an annual budget grown now to $43 million. He is the roly-poly wunderkind from cincinnati who slipped into the Met at age 27 as principal conductor, was named music director four years ago at 32, and is now one of a ruling triumvirate that has brought the grand dinosaur of grand opera up on its hind legs again. ![]() It hasn't hurt either that he is apparently a genius. It is that characteristically undeterred spirit, neither blase nor compulsive, which has made Jimmy Levine, as he is universally known backstage, an instant legend in the normally frantic world of music. "But remember," he added in wry explanation, "my responsibility is limited by contract - I only have to worry about how it all sounds." "Of course not," Levine said, grinning comfortably in a plush office deep in the labyrinth of New York's Lincoln Center. This will be the company's premiere engagement at the Kennedy Center, where its five offerings - "Otello" and "A Masked Ball" by Verdi Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," "Hansel and Gretel" and Benjamin Britten's "Billy Budd," are already sold out.Ĭan one man possibly feel himself really in control of the Metropolitan Opera? The instrument he plays these days, as music director and frequent conductor, is the Metropolitan Opera, an ensemble that arrives here tomorrow with a complement of 311 - an orchestra of 94, a chorous of 77, a ballet of 23, with 73 principle artists, four conductors, 180 tons of equipment, 1,500 costumes, 500 pairs of shoes and 600 wigs. Levine is now 36, and as unperturbedly self sufficient as ever. They learned of his passage into public life only by accidentally overhearing him on the phone - trying to decide whether his name should appear as "James" or "Jimmy" on the concert program. So unperturbed was young Jimmy by this event that he actually neglected to tell his parents. WHEN JAMES Levine was 10, he made his debut with the Cincinnati Symphony, playing Mendelssohn's Second Piano Concerto at a youth concert.
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