New York City Opera announced yesterday that it will move out of Lincoln Center and plan a smaller season of new operas this fall. According to the NY Times, the City Opera will stage five operas and three concerts at various (though not-yet named) venues, "just two years after a $107 million renovation at its Lincoln Center home."
The City Opera, which the AP says "is revered as a pillar of American culture that has delivered daring new productions and built the careers of such stars like Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming and Beverly Sills," had financial issues even before the financial crisis—its endowment has fallen to $9 million from $55 million— and also wanted to leave Lincoln Center for, well, decades. Also, the City Opera has had to share the David Koch Theater with the NYC Ballet, which had led to past problems (and acoustics have not been ideal for opera). City Opera thinks it will save over $4 million a year by leaving the Koch Theater; its general manager George Steel said, "We love Lincoln Center. It’s a wonderful place. But the reality is that the fixed costs of living here are simply too high. That’s why we are looking at leaving... I think we’re leaving for good."
Alan Gordon, executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents singers, dancers, stage directors and stage managers, told the AP that his members were upset by the news. He blamed Steel's esoteric tastes, "He refuses to program any of the big, solid operas that people do go to see. If they want to be a regional, part-time, freelance theater, then go with God, but that's not the world that opera singers work in." Box office sales, according to Bloomberg News, had been around 40% and AGMA members say it's been depressing to work in empty or near-empty houses.
