Two Years Later, James Levine Returns to Carnegie Hall...in a Wheelchair

The reviews are in. And by all accounts, James Levine's handi-capable return to the Met Orchestra's podium was, in fact, triumphant.

Having lost his Boston job to Andris Nelsons on Thursday, Classicalite was very interested in how Maestro Levine's Sunday afternoon performance would go down.

According to The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini--contrary to Thomas Wolfe's decree--you really can go home again.

"So he really is back." Moreover, Tommasini writes, "this was Mr. Levine at his best."

Taking a page from the Star Trek log, Ronald Blum from AP claimed Levine looked "a bit like a starship captain in the commander's chair."

Relatedly, in his off-site review for Vulture online, Justin Davidson praised what he heard as "a man who remained weightless and agile in music's malleable atmosphere."

As Levine closes in on 70 this June, an age when a conductor's legacy begins to foment, if Levine truly is what Tony Tommasini calls "one of the greatest living American conductors," perhaps we should readdress that pesky pedophilia problem of his.

And speaking of destinies and wheelchairs, here's a clip from 2010 of Verdi's La forza del destino led by Mario Miragliotta.