The once-prestigious Palau de les Arts in Valencia was headless last night after Davide Livermore quit as artistic director. Livermore was rushed into the job after the arrest of Helga Schmidt on spurious financial charges.

Yesterday, the board met to change Livermore’s terms of reference. He took umbrage and walked.

Report here (in Spanish).

The iconic Johnny Hallyday, a French singer who modelled his act on Elvis Presley, has died of cancer at 74.

His death was announced by President Macron, who said, ‘We all have something of Johnny Hallyday in us.’

The nation mourns.

Unlike lawyer-vetted statements by other orchestras distancing themselves from the disgraced ex-music director, the Boston Symphony has let its feelings show in a belated announcement last night.

It calls his alleged conduct ‘horrific’ and says Boston will never work with him again.

Statement:

In light of the recent horrific allegations against James Levine outlined in various media accounts since December 2, there is no doubt that the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the classical music industry must seriously reflect on this moment and determine ways to ensure sexual misconduct has no place in our industry. Though the Boston Symphony Orchestra (including Tanglewood and the Boston Pops, among other programs) meets top industry standards on all issues of employee safety, the orchestra is reviewing its policies regarding work place abuse and harassment issues to make certain they continue to meet and exceed the highest standards. In the new year, the BSO plans to convene a symposium with human resource experts who specialize in policy-making around these relevant issues to ensure the safest possible environment for all involved in our organization.  
 
The BSO is committed to a zero-tolerance policy towards anyone who exhibits inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Behavior by any employee of the BSO that runs counter to these core values would not be tolerated and would be met with the most serious consequences. 
 
While considering hiring James Levine as music director, through a third party, the Boston Symphony Orchestra adhered to due diligence in line with its employee hiring process, including a background check with a criminal screening and an analysis of any possible civil claims, as well as numerous conversations with music professionals across the country associated with Mr. Levine throughout his long career. Although the current allegations paint a different story about Mr. Levine, the BSO’s vetting process in 2001 did not reveal cause for concern.
 
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has not worked with James Levine since he stepped down as music director in 2011; he will never be employed or contracted by the BSO at any time in the future.

Clearly, it’s not enough just to go through an HR vetting procedure. As several of us wrote at the time, Boston’s hiring of Levine as music director was a spectacularly obtuse decision.

 

The national colours are blue and white.

The nation was defined by Jean Sibelius in 1899.

Today, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hannu Lintu, will perform two world premieres:
Lotta Wennäkoski: Untill the Dreams and Magnus Lindberg: Tempus fugit, followed by the Kullervo-symphony by Sibelius, with 150 singers from the Estonian national male choir and the Finnish Polytech Choir.

Watch it live here from 1300 GMT. Listen to it from your sauna.

Love Finland.

 

Emmanuel Vuillaume will conduct the new production of Tosca on New Year’s Eve, and most of the run.

The music director of Dallas Opera will stand in for the discredited James Levine, whose signature piece this is.

Here’s the Met’s announcement:

Casting Update: Emmanuel Villaume will conduct the Met’s new production of Tosca on December 31, 2017, and January 3, 6, 9, 12, 23, and 27, 2018, replacing James Levine.

Maestro Villaume, who recently conducted Massenet’s Thaïs at the Met, is Music Director of the Dallas Opera and Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia. He made his Met debut in 2004 conducting Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and his subsequent performances with the company have included Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Bizet’s Carmen, Massenet’s Manon and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.

Sir David McVicar’s new staging of Tosca opens on December 31, with Sonya Yoncheva as Tosca, Vittorio Grigolo as Cavaradossi, and Bryn Terfel as Scarpia. The January 27 matinee will be transmitted live as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 73 countries around the world.

Later performances on April 21, 26 and 30, and May 4, 8 and 12, 2018, will star Anna Netrebko in the title role opposite Marcelo Álvarez as Cavaradossi and Michael Volle and Željko Lučić sharing the role of Scarpia. The April and May performances will be conducted by Bertrand de Billy.

Gareth Morrell will conduct the performance on January 18, 2018. The conductor for the January 15 performance will be announced at a later date.

 

The New York Times chief music critic Anthony Tommasini does some desperate soul-searching over what to do with his treasured James Levine recordings now the paper has brought his hero down.

In the living room of the apartment I share with my husband, we have a handsome dark-wood case for our stereo system. Two box sets of performances from the Metropolitan Opera with James Levine conducting have occupied a prominent spot on the lower shelf since they were released in 2010 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Mr. Levine’s Met debut. Displaying them was a genuine expression of my admiration for a towering American artist.

But on Sunday, Mr. Levine was suspended by the Met after several men accused him of sexually abusing them decades ago, when they were still teenagers. Now, I’m not sure I want to keep those sets so visible in my home….

Oh, dear.

Read on here.

The Berlin-basd classical streaming service Idagio has raised €8 million in a new funding round from Tengelmann Ventures, Mülheim/Ruhr, btov Partners, and a number of angel investors.

Details here.

A Dutch court has abolished the 116,000 Euros ($140,000) fine imposed on the bandmaster André Rieu for bringing a group of Romanian children on stage to receive their applause after permitted hour of 11 pm.

Rieu had imported the children, with pan flute virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir, to play in his home town, Maastricht.

Limburg District Court ruled that the reasons for the fine were unfounded and ‘there are too few indications that Rieu employed the children.’

 

 

The Verbier Festival published next summer’s programme this morning.

It makes no reference to the festival orchestra’s long association with James Levine as music director from 2000 until 2009.

The orchestra is, in the festival’s description, made up of ‘110 musicians aged from 16 to 29 of many nationalities, coached by section leaders from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.’

Aged 16 to 29.

Martin Engstroem the festival, founder, once gave me certain assurances about young people being protected.

No incident has ever come to light at the festival.

However, yesterday, a violinist in the Verbier Festival Orchestra posted the following comment on Slipped Disc:

I am a former member (male, violinist) of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. I was playing concertmaster for one of the concerts at Verbier, and James Levine asked me to come to the conductor’s room to discuss bowings, etc. after a rehearsal. At the end of this short conversation, he invited me to his accommodations later that evening for a drink. (This was in the presence of his brother Tom, who usually accompanied the Maestro everywhere.) Upon arriving, however, I was asked to come to his room. Aware of the rumors, I declined and politely said that I had to go to a chamber music rehearsal. I later mentioned this to Martin Engstroem, who brushed it aside and said “That’s just Jimmy being Jimmy.” Anyhow, the entire incident made me very uncomfortable, and Levine pretty much ignored me for the remainder of his time at Verbier. I am aware of no precautions that were taken by Martin Engstroem or anyone at the Verbier Festival to safeguard orchestra members.

We have asked Martin Engstroem for his response.

 

Sean Farrell, former head of music at Wellington College and director of performance at Trinity College, London, has been found not guilty of fondling a pupil more than 30 years ago.

Farrell, 49, denied abusing a pupil at Ampleforth College in the 1980s. He told the jury he had never kissed or touched the boy inappropriately.

Fellow teachers testified that they had not heard or seen anything untoward in his behaviour with children.

 

 

 

The New York Times has reported anonymous allegations against the Danish dancer and choreographer Peter Martins, artistic director of City Ballet since 1990.

Martins, 71, has been suspended from taking class. But he remains in his position as head of ballet.

According to the Times: ‘Two former City Ballet dancers and three former students at the school described a culture in which Mr. Martins was known for sleeping with dancers, some of whom received better roles because of their personal relationships with him.’

NY City Ballet says its ongoing investigation ‘has not substantiated the allegations.’ It had received ‘an anonymous letter making general, nonspecific allegations of sexual harassment in the past by Peter Martins at both New York City Ballet and the school.’

The conductor and musicologist Jean-Christophe Keck has been given a nine-month suspended sentence and a 10,000 Euros fine for ‘abusing the weakness’ of a Swiss opera singer who left him part of her Euro 5m estate.

The singer, Eva Rehfuss, died in December 2008, aged 85.

A lawyer who looked after the old lady’s affairs was also convicted. Keck has given notice of appeal.

Keck, a producer and presenter for France Musique, is director of the complete edition of the works of Jacques Offenbach.

Report here.