The announcement was expected – even impatiently so – in some quarters of the opera world. But when the news came down on Thursday, it still registered as a shock: at the end of this season, James Levine will retire from his current post as “music director” at the country’s largest opera house (a position Levine has held since 1976). The “house that Jimmy built” will inevitably become a different place, once a successor is named. But that musician will inherit a rich and varied tradition that few opera fans would want to see utterly overhauled.
Levine built the Met Orchestra into one of the world’s great ensembles. And, more than any other mainstream figure, Levine has used his position to gradually expand American appreciation of the form. In an era of ever-more entrenched niche branding – with many musicians developing a reputation in the Romantics or else the Modernists – Levine has been one of the rare conductors that patrons would eagerly rush to hear in any music he might choose to interpret.
Even in the decade after Levine’s onstage fall ushered in an era of uncertain health (and many cancellations), I saw him turn in commanding presentations of works by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Berg and Stravinsky. (Levine introduced operas by those latter two composers to the company’s repertoire.) Though Levine did not lead this season’s transcendent performances of Berg’s Lulu, the fact that the house is even able to mount a work from a Second Viennese School composer as one of its tentpole “new productions” is largely thanks to Levine’s consistent advocacy.
Levine is not going away, either. When he becomes “music director emeritus”, next season, he will still lead several performances. And he will continue his efforts with the pioneering young-artist training program that has helped to develop the voices of some current house-favorite singers. But the fast-approaching end of his long-term music directorship is also a chance to take stock of his tremendous career at the institution’s musical helm. If you’ve yet to take a dive into this catalog, here are a few entry-point suggestions. Nearly all of the performances cited are available to view or hear via the Met’s “on demand” streaming service. (Operas are available for rent, individually. There are also one-month and year-long subscription passes. And English subtitles are available – in contrast to the clips uploaded to YouTube.)
The graceful work with top singers
In this excerpt from Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Anna Netrebko is the star. That’s as it should be. But listen for Levine’s responsive way of offering the support that grounds the soprano’s show-stopping demonstration – as when he draws out the symphonic accompaniment for the length of a Netrebko trill. It’s easy to become obsessed with appreciating Levine’s way of shaping orchestral interludes and climaxes, as that’s when the full force of the Met Orchestra is most apparent. But he has also been an inspired accompanist – and, at heart, a dramatist, too.
The dynamic steering of ensembles
During the “quarrel scene” in the second act of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, you want a sense of bedlam breaking loose – but you also need control over the sprawling stage madness. Listen for how Levine keeps everything together, during this 2001 telecast (before restoring a sense of calm at scene’s end):
For more recent (but similarly expert) steering of ensemble singing, look to this excerpt from Levine’s 2013’s performances of Mozart’s Così fan Tutte:
And this 2008 clip from Verdi’s Macbeth also shows Levine balancing a dizzying range of dynamics.
The orchestral magic
The conductor has always luxuriated in the music of Wagner, and this reading of Tannhäuser’s overture (from a 1982 telecast) gives a good sense of Levine’s sumptuous interpretive slant.
Levine the Modernist
The fact that the Met’s YouTube channel doesn’t offer any clips from Levine’s performances of 20th-century repertoire can be seen as the enduring problem of marketing “modern” pieces. But there are official Met Opera DVDs of Levine leading both of Berg’s towering operas. And the Met’s on-demand viewing/listening site also contains some of the more contemporary material beloved by the conductor. If you venture even a short subscription, be sure to check out vintage full-length videos of Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (both featuring Teresa Stratas).
The audio-only side of the Met’s site (and app) also offers some scintillating rarities, including complete performances of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, as well as multiple takes on Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Berg’s Wozzeck (not to mention some fantastic audio of Christine Schäfer’s portrayal of Lulu back in 2001).
And then there’s quite a lot of prime Strauss: two full videos of Ariadne auf Naxos (one with Kathleen Battle as Zerbinetta, and another featuring Natalie Dessay), as well as Hildegard Behrens’s 1994 take on Elektra. Here’s a (unofficial) YouTube clip of that performance:
You can always find someone who’s pretty certain they know how to run the Met Opera a bit better. More new commissions! More work by Americans! (I’m sometimes that person.) But it’s undeniable that, during his 40 years as musical director, Levine has had plenty of compelling, visionary ideas of his own — while also setting a high bar for performances of warhorses and audience favorites. Here’s hoping that Levine’s overall concept for an American opera house will also enjoy some emeritus status for a while yet.
