NEW YORK—New York City Opera Manager and Artistic Director George Steel announced the schedule and venues for the company’s 2011–2012 season at the Guggenheim Museum’s Peter B. Lewis Theater on Tuesday.
According to an announcement in May, the New York City Opera, also known as the People’s Opera, will leave Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater to perform at different venues around the city.
Outside the Guggenheim, an hour prior to Steel’s announcement, members of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and Associated Musicians of Greater New York joined formally dressed musicians from the New York City Opera Orchestra to protest the decision to leave the company’s landmark Lincoln Center location, as well as the pay cuts included in the latest contract offer.
“I call on the knowledgeable members of the board of directors to stand firm and reject what amounts to the death sentence of our New York City Opera,” said Catherine Malfitano, a former singer for the company.
Malfitano sang for the opera during the last six years of Julius Rudell’s 35-year career as New York City Opera conductor and leader. She believes the “expulsion” of the company from its home for the past 45 years, is largely due to what she described as “rudderless” leadership.
Although the company, which was founded in 1943, has been looking for a new home for more than 30 years, some believe that Steel has not made the necessary adjustments or taken the appropriate steps to keep the company at Lincoln Center. Rudell, who could not make it to the protest due to a prior arrangement, issued the following statement:
“What the current NYCO leadership has proposed is simply shameful. The ridiculous idea of an opera company with no permanent orchestra, no permanent chorus, no company of singers, and no permanent home represents the systematic dismemberment of what was the New York City Opera.”
Steel has stated that the decision to leave Lincoln Center is purely financial and that the company can no longer afford the venue’s $4.5 million annual costs.
“We’re leaving the David H. Koch Theater simply put because we can’t afford it any longer,” Steel said.
The company will instead perform in different venues around the city, including Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, and the El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio. Steel pointed out that each venue’s specific advantages have been considered for the productions scheduled. For example, El Teatro, which has remained mostly untouched since it was constructed in 1924 and features wall-sized oil on canvas paintings, and is an optimal venue for a baroque performance given its acoustic qualities. Other venues similarly suit the respective music styles of the scheduled performances.
The artists and performers believe that the latest plan turns the company into a traveling act. Given Steel’s latest labor proposal, some will see pay decreases of at least 50 percent. Fourteen members of the administrative staff have already been laid off due to budget cuts. As a result, doubt has been cast if the New York City Opera will remain a single unit.
“An opera company is a team, a cohesive family of soloists, chorus, orchestra, and backstage and administrative personnel, which brings with it a shared point of view, a richness of context, ensemble values, and a nest for nurturing young artists. If City Opera is transformed into a small ad hoc presenting organization forced to deploy pickup orchestras, choruses, and soloists, it can never again achieve these things and therefore cannot retain its identity or its impact,” states an open letter signed by more than 200 opera greats including Catherine Malfitano, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Sam Ramey, and Frederica von Stade.
Steel said that he hopes the unions will accept his latest proposal and that the company will remain a whole. He sees the scheduled performances as an opportunity to bring opera to people in different parts of the city. He argued that opera fans do not buy tickets based on a theater’s location, but on the performance they would like to attend.
“We expect a full and frank exchange of views, as they say—diplomacy, as we hammer out new labor contracts. As you know labor negotiations create their own kind of political theater and that theater often obscures more than it uncovers,” Steel said.
Steel is focusing on two essential points as labor negotiations move forward. One is that the changes he is seeking will be difficult for some.
“But the second and equally important point is that if we didn’t achieve fundamental change in those contracts, the company could not continue to exist,” he said.
The 2011–2012 season outlined by Steel would provide a financially stable model for the company, following more than a decade of losses.
The New York City Opera Orchestra and the AGMA recently cast a unanimous vote of no confidence in Steel. The group has stated that is has already made $2.5 million in concessions and is seeking to ensure the company’s survival through leadership that is competent and fiscally responsible.
According to an announcement in May, the New York City Opera, also known as the People’s Opera, will leave Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater to perform at different venues around the city.
Outside the Guggenheim, an hour prior to Steel’s announcement, members of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and Associated Musicians of Greater New York joined formally dressed musicians from the New York City Opera Orchestra to protest the decision to leave the company’s landmark Lincoln Center location, as well as the pay cuts included in the latest contract offer.
“I call on the knowledgeable members of the board of directors to stand firm and reject what amounts to the death sentence of our New York City Opera,” said Catherine Malfitano, a former singer for the company.
Malfitano sang for the opera during the last six years of Julius Rudell’s 35-year career as New York City Opera conductor and leader. She believes the “expulsion” of the company from its home for the past 45 years, is largely due to what she described as “rudderless” leadership.
Although the company, which was founded in 1943, has been looking for a new home for more than 30 years, some believe that Steel has not made the necessary adjustments or taken the appropriate steps to keep the company at Lincoln Center. Rudell, who could not make it to the protest due to a prior arrangement, issued the following statement:
“What the current NYCO leadership has proposed is simply shameful. The ridiculous idea of an opera company with no permanent orchestra, no permanent chorus, no company of singers, and no permanent home represents the systematic dismemberment of what was the New York City Opera.”
Steel has stated that the decision to leave Lincoln Center is purely financial and that the company can no longer afford the venue’s $4.5 million annual costs.
“We’re leaving the David H. Koch Theater simply put because we can’t afford it any longer,” Steel said.
The company will instead perform in different venues around the city, including Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House, the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, and the El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio. Steel pointed out that each venue’s specific advantages have been considered for the productions scheduled. For example, El Teatro, which has remained mostly untouched since it was constructed in 1924 and features wall-sized oil on canvas paintings, and is an optimal venue for a baroque performance given its acoustic qualities. Other venues similarly suit the respective music styles of the scheduled performances.
The artists and performers believe that the latest plan turns the company into a traveling act. Given Steel’s latest labor proposal, some will see pay decreases of at least 50 percent. Fourteen members of the administrative staff have already been laid off due to budget cuts. As a result, doubt has been cast if the New York City Opera will remain a single unit.
“An opera company is a team, a cohesive family of soloists, chorus, orchestra, and backstage and administrative personnel, which brings with it a shared point of view, a richness of context, ensemble values, and a nest for nurturing young artists. If City Opera is transformed into a small ad hoc presenting organization forced to deploy pickup orchestras, choruses, and soloists, it can never again achieve these things and therefore cannot retain its identity or its impact,” states an open letter signed by more than 200 opera greats including Catherine Malfitano, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Sam Ramey, and Frederica von Stade.
Steel said that he hopes the unions will accept his latest proposal and that the company will remain a whole. He sees the scheduled performances as an opportunity to bring opera to people in different parts of the city. He argued that opera fans do not buy tickets based on a theater’s location, but on the performance they would like to attend.
“We expect a full and frank exchange of views, as they say—diplomacy, as we hammer out new labor contracts. As you know labor negotiations create their own kind of political theater and that theater often obscures more than it uncovers,” Steel said.
Steel is focusing on two essential points as labor negotiations move forward. One is that the changes he is seeking will be difficult for some.
“But the second and equally important point is that if we didn’t achieve fundamental change in those contracts, the company could not continue to exist,” he said.
The 2011–2012 season outlined by Steel would provide a financially stable model for the company, following more than a decade of losses.
The New York City Opera Orchestra and the AGMA recently cast a unanimous vote of no confidence in Steel. The group has stated that is has already made $2.5 million in concessions and is seeking to ensure the company’s survival through leadership that is competent and fiscally responsible.
