Met Opera fires conductor James Levine

The Metropolitan Opera fired James Levine on Monday evening, ending its association with a conductor who defined the company for more than four decades after an investigation found what the Met called credible evidence that Levine had engaged in “sexually abusive and harassing conduct.” The investigation, which the Met opened in December after a report in The New York Times, found evidence of abuse and harassment “both before and during the period” when Levine worked at the Met, the company said in a statement. Levine, 74, has become the highest-profile figure in classical music to have his career upended during the national reckoning over sexual misconduct. It was an extraordinary fall from grace for a legendary maestro, a man many have considered the greatest American conductor since Leonard Bernstein.