The Business of Revivals

Impresario Michael Capasso may save two failed opera companies.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

In his proposal for a New York City Opera Renaissance, impresario Michael Capasso
suggests mounting Franco Zeffirelli's production of Tosca (above)
in Lincoln Center's intimate Rose Theater.
Act I of Tosca. Photo © Teatro Opera di Roma.

In a dramatic turn of events worthy of the operatic stage, two recently darkened New York opera companies have unveiled a plan to join forces and come back to life. The proposal, linked to yesterday on parterre.com (and readable here) comes from Michael Capasso, the general director of the recently dimmed Dicapo Opera. The new hybrid opera company would be called (wait for it)

NEW YORK CITY OPERA RENAISSANCE.

Brother, Can You Spare $250,000?

City Opera seeks help to balance its budget.

A certain economy informs costume design at
the new City Opera. Image by Wacky Clip Art. 

by Paul Pelkonen
Despite reducing costs by cutting the expense of cutting orchestra, chorus and residency at Lincoln Center, the New York City Opera is still facing financial problems.

In a letter sent to the author's personal mailbox, City Opera general manager George Steel is soliciting donations of $250 in an effort to help his troubled opera company balance its budget for the fiscal year. The letter mentioned a fund-raising goal of $250,000

In the past calendar year, Mr. Steel has made headlines on this blog and elsewhere. The company moved out of its Lincoln Center home at the former New York State Theater, citing the high cost of using the facility. Then, City Opera cut its schedule to four operas and a total of just 16 performances.

Over the winter months, engaged in a messy dispute with Musicians Local 802 and the American Guild of Musical Artists, the unions that represent the company's orchestra and chorus. That dispute was resolved in January in an eleventh-hour compromise that favored the opera company.

City Opera Occupies Financial District

Opera company moves into new office over a cigar store.
(No, really.)

The ITT Building at 75 Broad Street,
new home of New York City Opera.

Like a rebellious teenager threatening to move out of the house, the  troubled New York City Opera has finally made good on its threat and left Lincoln Center altogether.

The opera company, which announced earlier this year that it would not be performing in its longtime home at the former New York State Theater, had maintained offices in the building for the last eight months. Their new digs are at 75 Broad Street, located in the heart of the financial district. An advertised rent for office space in the building listed it at $33 per square foot. 

Built in 1928 as the ITT building, this 33-story office block sits on the corner of Broad and South William Street, two blocks from the New York Stock Exchange. It is nowhere near any theaters, opera houses, concert halls, or anywhere else that could be used for the performance of opera. Perhaps the company will perform in the nine-seat cigar lounge of tobacconists Barclay Rex, who have a store in the building.

In other news, City Opera's labor impasse with two unions (Musicians' Local 802 and the American Guild of Musical Artists) continues. Negotiations ended last week when the opera company declared an impasse. NYCO general manager George Steel has asked for a federal mediator to step in and jump-start a new session of negotiations. With the new offices only two blocks from the heavily guarded New York Stock Exchange, Mr. Steel may have chosen 75 Broad with the idea of using the New York Police Department as strike-breakers. Or maybe he just likes to walk to work.

Before that happens, the mediator's task will be to persuade the musicians that a contract stripped of health benefits and offering only ten percent of their former salaries is some kind of upgrade over making money to perform opera. In November, the company rejected offers from both the chorus and  orchestra to play for free in exchange for keeping their health benefits.

City Opera has until February to get their musicians in line (or hire scabs.) The company's truncated season is scheduled to open at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with productions of Verdi's La Traviata and Prima Donna, the new French-language opera by singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

The most disturbing rumor about City Opera comes from the blog VoiceTalk, written by singer Daniel James Shigo. Mr. Shigo published a story on Dec. 5 alleging that the opera company is planning to discard its archives. These include rare programs and photographs of the many stars who graced its stage in a history lasting more than half a century. Sad, but typical of the recent history under Mr. Steel's management.