Arts & Entertainment
Met Opera conductor James Levine suspended over sexual abuse allegations
three men have come forward with claims

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons.)
New York’s Metropolitan Opera has suspended conductor James Levine after three men have come forward with allegations that Levine sexually abused them as teenagers.
The New York Post first reported that Chris Brown, who played principal bass in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for more than 30 years, claimed that Levine masturbated him while he was a student at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan while Levine was on the summer program’s faculty. Brown was 17 at the time and Levine was 25.
“I don’t know why it was so traumatic,” Brown said in an interview with the New York Times. “I don’t know why I got so depressed. But it has to be because of what happened. And I care deeply for those who were also abused, all the people who were in that situation.”
James Lestock, now 67, alleges that when he was a 17-year-old cello student at the school Levine also masturbated him.
Ashok Pai also accuses Levine of sexually abusing him starting when he was 15 years old. Pai says he first met Levine at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Ill., in 1973 when Pai was four years old. He claims that once Pei became older Levine sexually abused him multiple times for years. A Lake Forest, Ill., police department report filed by Pai last year details the abuse including an incident where Levine allegedly lay naked in bed with Pai and touched his penis.
“I began seeing a 41-year-old man when I was 15, without really understanding I was really ‘seeing’ him,” Pai wrote in a statement to the police. “It nearly destroyed my family and almost led me to suicide. I felt alone and afraid. He was trying to seduce me. I couldn’t see this. Now I can.”
The Met announced on Sunday that Levine has been suspended pending police investigation. Former U.S. Attorney Robert J. Cleary, now head of the investigations practice at the Proskauer Rose law firm, has been appointed to the case.
“While we await the results of the investigation, based on these new news reports, the Met has made the decision to act now,” Met General Manager Peter Gelb said in a statement. “This is a tragedy for anyone whose life has been affected.”
Our statement on James Levine: pic.twitter.com/9iJOY24ysc
— Metropolitan Opera (@MetOpera) December 4, 2017
On Saturday, Levine, 74, conducted Verdi’s “Requiem” for a worldwide radio broadcast. It’s expected to be Levine’s last performance with the Met as police investigate the claims. Levine, who has been struggling with health complications including Parkison’s Disease, served as the Met’s music director from 1976-2016.
The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)








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The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)









Books
Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?
‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia
‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages
Mom called you in a panic the other day.
She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.
These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.
You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?
Chin says maybe, yes.
He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.
Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.
Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.
Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.
Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”
Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.
Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.
Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.
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