The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam has terminated its contract with its chief conductor Daniele Gatti in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct. The Italian is the latest in a series of conductors to be removed from their post after being accused of sexual misconduct, following James Levine and Charles Dutoit.

Daniele Gatti. Photo © Anne Dokter

The allegations against Gatti were published in a Washington Post story on sexual misconduct in the classical music industry, authored by Anne Midgette and Peggy McGlone. Gatti was just one of three men named, all of whom have now suffered public consequences for what has been characterised as years of serious misconduct.

The story alleged that Gatti had, on separate occasions, attacked two women in his dressing room. Soprano Alicia Berneche claimed that in 1996, the conductor put his “hands on my rear end, and his tongue down my throat” after having been invited to his room in order to set up a time for a coaching session. The soprano Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet told the Post that Gatti had tried something similar in 2000 when she was singing in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer...