“A judge on Tuesday dismissed all but one of the defamation claims that the conductor James Levine made in a lawsuit he filed against the Metropolitan Opera last year after it had fired him amid allegations of sexual misconduct,” writes Michael Cooper in Tuesday’s (3/26) New York Times. “The ruling came just over a year after the Met fired Mr. Levine, who had been its music director for four decades and who had recently assumed an emeritus position—making him the biggest classical music star to lose his job during the national reckoning over sexual misconduct. Mr. Levine, who has denied any wrongdoing, sued the Met for breach of contract and defamation; the Met countersued him, accusing Mr. Levine of decades of misconduct and saying that he had violated his duties to the company and harmed the institution. After Justice Andrea Masley of the New York State Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday dismissing most of Mr. Levine’s defamation claims, but allowing one to proceed, lawyers representing both Mr. Levine and the Met said that they were pleased…. The rest of Mr. Levine’s suit is proceeding; there is a conference scheduled for next month.”
Posted March 27, 2019
