“When Daniel Lipton resigned as artistic director of Opera Tampa in July, it caught many by surprise,” writes Andrew Meacham in Friday’s (3/2) Tampa Bay Times. “Lipton was an accomplished conductor with deep international ties. His contract was not set to expire until 2018. The maestro’s official reason for leaving was that he wanted to pursue other projects. But in January, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Lipton was being sought by Canadian police in a connection with a sexual assault. Since then, two other women have stepped forward, telling the Times stories of uncomfortable or disturbing contact they say they had with Lipton.… Judith Lisi, Opera Tampa’s co-founder and CEO of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, has maintained that she did not know about the Canadian arrest warrant, which was issued in February 2017, until told by a Times reporter. But she has now acknowledged that Opera Tampa bought out the final eight months on Lipton’s contract. The reason, she said, was her concern over what she had heard about his behavior toward women…. Neither Lipton nor Scott Lilly, the Tampa lawyer he said was representing him, returned multiple messages requesting comment.” The article includes descriptions by several female singers of Lipton’s workplace misconduct.
Posted March 6, 2018
