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A judge on Tuesday rejected all allegations of defamation that conductor James Levine had filed in a lawsuit he had filed against the Metropolitan Opera last year after firing him for reasons for sexual conduct.
The decision was made a little over a year after the Met's dismissal, Mr. Levine, musical director for four decades, who had recently held a distinguished position, making him the biggest star of classical music to have lost his use in the national judgment on sexuality. misconduct.
Mr. Levine, who denied any wrongdoing, sued the Met for breach of contract and defamation. The Met sued, accusing Mr. Levine of decades of misconduct and asserting that he had violated his obligations to society and harmed the institution.
After Judge Andrea Masley of the New York Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday rejecting most of Mr. Levine's defamation actions, lawyers representing both Mr. Levine and the Met said they were satisfied. .
One of the rejected claims was based on statements by Peter Gelb, chief executive of the Met, after the New York Times and the New York Post published in 2017 several articles in which several men accused Mr. Levine of mistreating them at home. adolescence or youth.
Mr. Gelb then told the Times that the Met was awaiting the outcome of an investigation that she had ordered and had referred to "a tragedy for all those whose lives had been affected." He then wrote to supporters of the Met, calling the period it's a sad moment in the company's history and a tragedy for anyone whose life may have been affected. "
The prosecution of Mr. Levine claimed that these statements were defamatory.
Masley J. disagreed: "The average reader's reasonable interpretation of these statements throughout the context is that, whether true or false, the accused sympathized with any affected or negatively affected person in relation to the charges; that is, the situation was "tragic"[ic]"If the accusers were hurt by alleged behavior or if Levine and the Met, his longtime employer, were injured by false accusations in the press."
She also rejected claims that two other statements were defamatory on the grounds that they had been made by Met's lawyer in response to Mr. Levine's trial.
One was the statement by counsel Bettina B. Plevan that the Met had "thoroughly investigated" Mr. Levine "who had uncovered credible, corroborated evidence of misconduct. during his stay at the Met, as well as earlier. The other was his statement that the Met had appointed Mr. Levine as Music Director Emeritus "when it became clear that Levine was no longer physically able to perform his duties as Music Director. (The company announced the change of status in 2016, when Mr. Levine was 72 years old and had complications related to Parkinson's disease.)
But Masley J. concluded that Mr. Levine could claim that the statement made by the Met on March 12 was defamatory, since it preceded the trial. According to this statement, the Met had "discovered credible evidence that Mr. Levine engaged in sexually abusive and harassing behavior."
Mr. Levine's lawyer Edward J. M. Little, a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, said he was delighted that the judge had kept what he called "Maestro Levine's strongest complaint for defamation".
"The Met did not just fire it," Little said in a statement. "As we have argued, it slandered her after 50 years of brilliant artistic genius that greatly contributed to what the Met has become."
The Met's lawyer, Plevan, a partner at Proskauer Rose, said in a statement: "The Metropolitan Opera is pleased that the court has dismissed almost all of James Levine's defamation claims against the Met, including including the only complaint against Peter Gelb. . "
The remainder of Mr. Levine's lawsuit is pending; a conference is planned for next month.
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