James Levine conducting the Met Orchestra in 2011 Credit: Hulton Archive/Hiroyuki Ito James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera of New York: for decades the names of this leading conductor and the most celebrated opera house in America if not the planet were practically synonymous. And what a disaster that total identification of the figurehead with the institution has proved to be for the Met. Rumours of Levine’s sexually predatory behaviour began to swirl around the operatic world as early as the 1980s, but it wasn’t until 2017 that the allegations were made public. The Met first suspended their star conductor and then fired him the following year. But instead of going quietly Levine responded with the rage of a deposed emperor, launching a law-suit alleging unfair dismissal. In 2020 the Met paid $3.5 million to settle the dispute. It was a shameful ending to the most ignominious period in the Met’s history and appeared to confirm what many had been asserting for a while: that Levine had stayed too long and become too powerful. And just to add insult to injury the Met's orchestra and chorus had been on furlough without pay since April, owing to the financial crisis brought on by the pandemic.