Ousted Metropolitan Opera conductor and accused sšÆex abuser James Levine is trying to discredit one of his alleged victims by dredging up a āloveā letter hisš teen accuser once wrote to him.
In his lawsuit against the opera company, the famed, wild-haired maestro presented excerpts from a 1989 missive penned by then 19-year-old Ashok Pai in which the teenager writes, āā¦I WANT ACCESSšā and āI LOVE YOU.ā
āIt is unimaginable that a person would write that he desperately wš¼ants to see and loves the person who sexually abused ošr harassed him,ā according to Levineās amended legal complaint which seeks at least $6.6 million in damages.
The Post first revealed in December Paiās cį¦omplaintš¦ to Illinois police that Levine sexually abused him as a boy. The Met suspended Levine a day after the expose, and fš«ired him in March following an intš“ernal investigation. Levine sued three days later.
Pai alleges that the illicit relationship began when he was 15 and the maestšro was a guest conductor at the Ravinia Music Festival outside Chicago while the teen lived nearby. He claims the encounters progressed from āuncomfortableā hand-holding to ą·“sexual acts and continued for years.
Pai told The Post last week that Levine using the letters to try to clear his name šwas āsad.
āHeās not apologetic. He has an inability to see that heās done anythinšg wrongš.
āThe letters were the result of (my) many, many times acting in a way that was unhealthy for me,ā āsaid Pai, who is now 48 and lives in Brooklšyn. āI donāt dispute the letters, but their spin on them makes my case even stronger. Because of the abuse, I was hooked on him like a drug, even though it was bad for me.ā
Levineās court complaint also includes excerpts frį£om letters sent by James Lestock, who has said Levine began an abusive relationsź¦æhip with him when he was a 17-year-old music student.
The Met counteš³r-sued Levine in May saying the maestro āengaged in sexually abusive and harassing condš§øuct toward numerous artistsā including teenagers.
Levine contends in his suit that Met general manager Peter Gelb had a ālong-held planā to oust him and used āthe sex scź¦¦andal to do it.
A Met spokesman said the opeź¦ra company disagreed with that premise.
Levineās new court filing spells out the scandalās cost to him, starting with his yearly $400,000 contract as the Metās music dź¦irector emeritus plus $27,000 for every performance he conducted and anotą¶£her $2,900 a week in ārehearsal expenses.ā He was to conduct at least 39 concerts during the 2017-18 season.
He also lost a $50,000 gig to conduct Verdiās āRequiem Massā for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; $75,000 tź§o guest conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra; guest spots with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through 2022 that paid up to $58,000 each; and $500,000 to serve for five years as conductor laureate at the Ravinia festival.
Additionally, Knopf Doušblą½§eday canceled a book deal with an $82,500 advance.
Additional reporting by Isabel Vincent