Conductor of Met Opera suspended

NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Opera suspended James Levine, its revered conductor and former music director, on Sunday after three men came forward with accusations that Levine had sexually abused them decades ago.

Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met, said the company was suspending its four-decade relationship with Levine, 74, and canceling his conducting engagements after learning from the Times on Sunday about the three men, who described similar sexual encounters with Levine. The Met has asked a law firm to investigate.

‘‘This is a tragedy for anyone whose life has been affected,” Gelb said.

The accusations of sexual misconduct stretch back to 1968. Chris Brown, who played bass in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for more than three decades, said Levine masturbated him that summer — and coaxed him to reciprocate — when Brown was 17 at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan. Levine was a rising star on the faculty.

James Lestock said Levine also masturbated him there that summer when Lestock, 17, was a cello student — the first of many encounters with Levine that have haunted him. And Ashok Pai, who grew up in Illinois near the Ravinia Festival, where Levine was music director, said he was abused by Levine starting in summer 1986, when Pai was 16.

A Levine spokesman did not comment.