When the Metropolitan Opera was told this week that a veteran British stage director had made a sexually charged remark to a member of the chorus, it acted swiftly and fired the director, stunning the opera world. On Friday, the union representing both the chorister and the director said it believed the incident could have been resolved to the satisfaction of both sides without dismissing the director.

It all began on Jan. 26, when John Copley, 84, a distinguished opera director, addressed a member of the Met’s chorus during a rehearsal of Rossini’s “Semiramide.” Mr. Copley was accused of telling the chorister: “I’m thinking of you in my bed with your clothes off,” the Met said in a statement. The Met said that the chorus member was left feeling “extremely ill at ease due to this sexually demeaning remark,” and that he “requested to leave the evening performance of ‘Il Trovatore’ in which he was performing because he felt upset and distressed.”

After the chorus member complained to the Met’s human resources department on Monday, the company said, he and a fellow chorus member who had witnessed the encounter were interviewed. The company said that Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, then spoke with Mr. Copley, who “did not deny the incident.” It said that the chorus member “felt unable to continue working with Mr. Copley because of the hostile, sexually charged environment that had been created,” so “Mr. Copley was asked to leave the production.”

But officials at the union, the American Guild of Musical Artists, said there appeared to have been a miscommunication, and that they believed the episode could have been resolved amicably without firing Mr. Copley.