The Spanish composer Carles Santos who wrote music for the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games has died at the age of 77.

A multidisciplinary artist, he also designed clothes, made films and toured his own productions.

Hadassah Markson, director of the School of Music and the Arts at New York’s 92nd Street Y from 1969 to 1992, has died at 90.

Known to all as Dassy, she founded and produced the Lyrics and Lyricists Series, the Jazz in July Festival, and the Jazz Piano Series.

After barely two years in the green and pleasant land, Sebastian Schwarz resigned today as general director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, leaving a certain amount of disarray.

Here’s his reason: ‘In my first encounter with a privately funded company I have come to appreciate Glyndebourne’s unique and complex business model on which its success and survival are dependent and for which the General Director is responsible, alongside providing the artistic strategy.  While planning the seasons up to 2021, I have realised that I feel most at home in a position which allows me to concentrate more fully on creating and executing the artistic vision of an organisation.’

And here’s what Glyndebourne owner Gus Christie says: ‘After much careful reflection, Sebastian and I have agreed that he will step down from his position of General Director. Sebastian’s extraordinary passion for the art form and expertise in the singing voice will be showcased in March at The Glyndebourne Opera Cup, our new international singing competition, an initiative which he brought to the company earlier this year. As planned, Sebastian will continue to chair the jury for the competition. … He is hugely respected and admired by everyone at Glyndebourne, including myself, and he has made an indelible mark on the organisation in his time with us. The fruits of his labours will be celebrated in upcoming years. We part as friends and esteemed colleagues and wish Sebastian every success with his future…’

What’s going down? No-one knows yet, but this has certainly came out of the blue.

Schwarz, 43, was previously deputy artistic director of Theater an der Wien.

We hear that the Birmingham Post is scrapping its classical music review budget. The economy measure will take effect after Christmas.

A proud tradition going back 150 years is being extinguished by executive decree.

The only glimmer of light is that chief critic Christopher Morley and his team will carry on reviewing selected events for the paper, but without payment.

Birmingham, with the best hall in the country and possibly the best orchestra, was about to be wiped off the map by its heartless newspaper.

A couple of decades back, when the Verbier Festival named James Levine as music director of its youth orchestra, I asked the festival’s founder, Martin Engstroem, if he shared the awareness in music circles that Levine had a predilection for teenaged boys. Engstroem replied that he had known Levine for years, and that precautions would be taken to safeguard orchestra members. No Verbier incident has ever come to light.

But this do-know-don’t-know was typical of the attitude of classical institutions towards a conductor who hung out in sweaty t-shirts and a cloud of rumours, none of them substantiated. Now that three men have come forward to accuse Levine of grooming them for sexual acts, at a time that they were teenagers and he was a powerful conductor, the worlds of opera and classical music are having to take stock of past myopia and assess the likely backlash.

Without prejudging the allegations, the organisations below are the ones with most to contemplate.

1 Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood
Levine was active at Tanglewood in the 1970s. The BSO says it conducted due diligence when it named him music director in 2003. The Boston Globe ran an investigation and came up with no story, at least none that was publishable by the more stringent criteria of the time.

2 Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia
Levine guested with Chicago in the 1970s and was music director of the Ravinia Festival, 1973-1993. One of the published allegations relates to Chicago.

3 Cleveland Orchestra
Levine cut his conducting teeth under George Szell in the 1960s. UPDATE: 3 cities disown Levine.

4 Metropolitan Opera
Levine made his debut in Tosca in June 1971 and was named music director in 1976. From then until last year, when he became emeritus, he enjoyed the wholehearted support of the orchestra, whose conditions he fought to improve and whose standards he raised. Two external incidents reported to the board appear to have been brushed aside.  What went on within the Met stayed in the Met. The company has now commissioned an independent investigation.

5 Verbier Festival
See here.

6 Record labels
Levine worked with RCA, Deutsche Grammophon and Decca. An incident was reported in London during the course of a recording session, after which Levine kept away from the UK for 17 years. Were the labels aware?

7 London orchestras, and others
Levine recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the LSO. In Europe, he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna, often at the Salzburg Festival.

8 Munich Philharmonic
Levine was music director from 1999 to 2004. The size of his fee drew opposition in the city council. Some Green Party members asked about his sexual predilections. The appointment was democratically approved.

9 Columbia Artists
Levine was managed by the late Ronald Wilford, co-owner of the giant agency. Whatever Levine did, Wilford knew.

10 Peter Gelb
The present manager of the Met was Wilford’s protégé at Columbia Artists. Gelb knew Levine well and was press flak for him in Boston. In recent seasons, he has been trying to shuffle Levine into retirement.

11 The New York Times
Whatever Gelb knew about Levine was also known by his father, a senior executive at the Times. Many other Times journalists were privy to the tittle-tattle about Levine. None ever raised it in an interview with him. UPDATE: With the honorable exception of John Rockwell in 1987.  Levine replied: ‘I don’t have the faintest idea where those rumors came from or what purpose they served.’

12 Everyone else
Hundreds in the music world heard stories. No-one did anything. We all need to ask if our standards of conduct were good enough and if our consciences are clear that we did enough to protect vulnerable young persons.

The abrupt decision by a local administration to shut down the music high school at Neuchatel is starting to cause waves.

This morning, Martha Argerich published an open letter calling for the distinguished school to be maintained.

The school, which is the Neuchâtel site of HEM Geneva, attracts pupils from all over Switzerland and neighbouring countries.

Musicians should post messages of support here.

The death has been announced by the Vienna State Opera of the tenor William Blankenship, a member of the company from 1967 to 1969.

He died in Vienna on December 2, aged 89.

William Leonard Blankenship came from Gatesville, Texas. He gained his first roles in Europe at Klagenfurt, Braunschweig, Mannheim and Bern. He made his Vienna Opera debut in January 1967 as Conte d’Almaviva in the Barber of Seville and went on to sing 30 roles over 203 performances.

In the US, he sang with Santa Fe Opera, San Diego, Dallas and Houston.

The Metropolitan Opera has cancelled all engagements with James Levine, its longest serving chief conductor, latterly its conductor emeritus.

The action was prompted by a report in the New York Times that three men had come forward with allegations that Levine had engaged them in masturbation in the 1960s and 1970s when they were teenagers. One of the three is Ashok Pai, whose claim was first reported in the NY Post.

The Met issued this statement during the night:

‘We are suspending our relationship with James Levine, pending an investigation, following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Levine that took place from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, including the earlier part of his conducting career at the Met. Mr. Levine will not be involved in any Met activities, including conducting scheduled performances at the Met this season. “While we await the results of the investigation, based on these new news reports, the Met has made the decision to act now,” said Peter Gelb, Met General Manager, whose actions are fully supported by the leadership of the Met Board and its Executive Committee. “This is a tragedy for anyone whose life has been affected.”

In each of the cases, Levine, now 74, is alleged to have initiated sexual activity with very young men. It is no clear whether any of them was below the age of consent in the state where the events took place. In the one known instance, Ashok Pai’s, where a complaint was made to the police, the prosecuting authorities decided that the matter was covered under the statute of limitations. Levine has not been interviewed by police in any of these three cases.

These are the facts that have come to light.

It is alleged that Levine used his authority as an older man in a position of authority towards young musicians to engage them in sexual activity.

The allegations raise serious questions for the Met, where Levine has appeared for 47 years, as well as the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland where he was invited to head a youth orchestra, and other organisations.

The young Levine

Levine is credited with raising the Met to standards of unparallelled excellence. The foremost American-born conductor since Leonard Bernstein, he has been hampered in the past decade by severe illness that has confined him to conducting from a wheelchair. He will not, as planned, conduct a new production of Tosca on New Year’s Eve.

UPDATE: Who has questions to answer?

UPDATE2: 3 cities disown Levine