New York City Opera to Leave Lincoln Center

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Just two years after a $107 million renovation at its Lincoln Center home, the troubled New York City Opera plans to move out and perform in various places around New York, officials of the company said on Friday.

City Opera disclosed its plans as it announced that it had settled on a slimmed-down budget for five operas and three concerts, starting in October, after speculation that financial woes would force it to halt performances.

The opera’s departure would be the first major defection from America’s premier arts complex, although City Opera has been talking about a move for 30 years. The New York Philharmonic also flirted with the idea of relocating, to Carnegie Hall in 2003, but that deal fell through.

After leadership turmoil, a canceled season and severe financial difficulties, the current move represents yet another sharp drop in prestige at City Opera. Founded in 1943 as the “people’s opera company,” it has nurtured great artists like Beverly Sills, Samuel Ramey, Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/arts/music/new-york-city-opera-plans-to-leave-lincoln-center.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That's a shame. Good luck to them...nt

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Meaning they're moving out of the *David H. Koch Theatre*?

[alp227]

4. I visited NYC in summer 2010 after I first learned about the Koch brothers.

I remember seeing the Koch name on PBS programs and places like that, and wow I didn't know the same guy bankrolling the Tea Party and oil industry propaganda also loved the opera. Plus, the Lincoln Center/Koch Theatre is several blocks away up Broadway from WNET, the PBS station in NYC just past Fordham University.

[Downwinder]

3. Leaving the David H. Koch Theater.

[KoKo]

5. What I read of the article implied that Koch Brothers renovations cost them a season's worth of

tickets and there's some vague references to UNIONS ...sort of seeming that they are asking too much money that's hurting the Opera..after the Koch Brothers caused them to lose money.

Was this a Koch Brothers effort to cause NYC Opera to lose money so that they could stiff the Musicians and Staging Unions?

Nah...I'm being too conspiratorial in my read of this.

[defendandprotect]

10. hmmmm.....

[juxtaposed]

6. sad,, The first opera I went to I was about 6 or 8 years old.

Are the koch boys going to make the lincoln center into the grand old opera?

Rich white trash sticks its money in my world sucks.

[Historic NY]

7. Kochsuckers ruin everything they touch.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Wonder if Alec Baldwin found it ironic to introduce his weekly opera broadcast

from the David H. Koch Theatre.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Correction: City Opera is in the Koch Theater. But how about this:

The building was re-named b/c Koch donated 100 million dollars to restore the theater. http://pressroom.nycopera.com/pr/nycopera/news/TheaterRenamed.aspx

Now the City Opera is moving out.

BTW was that $100 mil totally tax-deductible?

[defendandprotect]

9. Art is Smart -- it has to be destroyed along with our infrastructure -- !!

[Golden Raisin]

11. Beverly Sills is

turning in her grave. The Company has brought ruin and destruction on themselves through a series of incredibly inept administrative, artistic and financial decisions. It's very sad. I have attended NYCO for 40+ years and am deeply saddened to see the Company falling apart. Even sadder & harder is walking past the theatre every day and seeing David Koch's name plastered all over it.

[leftynyc]

12. That's sad

Opera has gotten to be a very expensive proposition in New York. I go to the Metropolitan Opera and I have to bleeding out of my eyes to decide not to go because it's just too expensive to decide "eh, I'm too tired". All the arts are suffering right now. Empty seats were virtually unheard of until around 5 years ago. I hope they can make this work - there are certainly plenty of theatres in NYC for them to put productions in.