Star opera director fired for ‘sexually demeaning’ remark
REnOWnED John Copley British has been opera sacked director by new York’s Metropolitan Opera for making a ‘sexually demeaning’ remark to a male performer.
Mr Copley, 84, who in 2014 was given a CBE for services to opera, was dismissed from the revival of his 1990 production of Rossini’s Semiramide over the ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
In a rehearsal last week Mr Copley is said to have approached a chorus member and said: ‘I’m thinking of you in my bed with your clothes off.’
The Met Opera said he had created a ‘hostile, sexually charged environment’ that left the man ‘upset and distressed’.
Earlier this week Mr Copley – who it is said did not deny the incident – was fired. He is understood to have then flown back to the uK.
The incident comes as the Met Opera investigates its former music director, James Levine, who was suspended in December amid claims by four men he sexually abused them decades ago when they were his students. In a statement last night the Met Opera said: ‘On Monday, January 29 the Met HR department received a complaint from a chorus member regarding an incident in a rehearsal room that had taken place on Friday, January 26. ‘[ It] was told that stage director John Copley had approached the chorus member and said “I’m thinking of you in my bed with your clothes off”, making the chorus member feel extremely ill at ease due to this sexually demeaning remark. The comment was overheard by other chorus members ... Later that day the chorus member found himself unable to continue with his work ... because he felt upset and distressed.
‘Met general manager Peter Gelb spoke to Mr Copley, who did not deny the incident.
‘After further discussions with the chorus member, who felt unable to continue working with Mr Copley because of the hostile, sexually charged environment that had been created, Mr Copley was asked to leave.’ Mr Copley had until now been one of the world’s most respected opera directors, with a career spanning seven decades. His biography on Columbia Artists describes him as ‘one of the most dominant directorial influences in the history of British opera’.
In 1953 he was made a stage manager at Sadler’s Wells. He made his directorial debut in 1962 and has since directed for every major British and uS company including the Royal Opera House, where he was principal resident director.