NEW YORK—The Metropolitan Opera fired the veteran British stage director John Copley this week after receiving a complaint about what the company described as “inappropriate behavior in the rehearsal room.”Copley, 84, has been one of the opera world’s foremost directors for decades. He was at the Met directing a revival of his 1990 production of Rossini’s Semiramide when a member of the chorus reported that Copley had made him uncomfortable at a rehearsal on Monday with a sexually charged remark, according to two people familiar with the complaint. The Met said in a statement that “following a complaint from a chorister about inappropriate behavior in the rehearsal room that was received on Monday, Jan. 29, John Copley is no longer directing the revival of Semiramide that will open on Feb. 19.”William Guerri, Copley’s manager at Columbia Artists, could not immediately be reached for comment. Copley’s dismissal came as the Met has been investigating accusations against its former music director, James Levine, whom it suspended in December after The New York Times reported the accounts of four men who said that he had sexually abused them decades ago, when the men were teenagers or his students. Levine has denied the accusations.

Source: thestar February 01, 2018 15:22 UTC