MET OPERA ACCUSES CONDUCTOR JAMES LEVINE OF DECADES OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT:

The company suspended Mr. Levine in December, and commissioned an outside investigation into his behavior, after reports appeared in The New York Times and The New York Post detailing accusations by several men who said they had been sexually abused by him decades ago, when they were teenagers or students of his. The Met fired Mr. Levine in March after the investigation found what it called “credible and corroborated evidence of sexual misconduct during his time at the Met, as well as earlier.” A few days later, Mr. Levine sued, accusing the company of defamation and breach of contract.

The Met’s suit says that the company “has and will continue to incur significant reputational and economic harm as a result of the publicity associated with Levine’s misconduct.” The company was already in a difficult financial position before the scandal broke, battling the high costs of putting on grand opera amid a box office slump.

On Friday, Moody’s Investors Service Inc., the credit rating agency, downgraded the Met’s bonds to Baa2 from Baa1, citing its “thin liquidity and the fact that it has not yet been able to reach its endowment fund-raising targets combined with ongoing labor costs pressures and capital needs.” One of the Met’s strengths, it noted, was its strong donor support, which the company relies on.

Regarding that last paragraph, Terry Teachout tweets, “That’s an earthquake you hear rumbling in the distance.”