With one classical-based organization staying above water, the New York City Opera announced that it would stage Daniel Catán's Florencia en al Amazonas in June at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater. This will mark the company's first endeavor into its Spanish-language opera series.
Hundreds of patrons who bought tickets to the New York City Opera's 2013-14 season will finally get a refund for the missed term. During that time, the company declared bankruptcy and many were left without retribution. Now, the company has sent out an e-mail declaring that subscribers will be fully reimbursed.
If you've been following, the bankrupt New York City Opera has been in a bidding war for its name and assets and convened on the topic Tuesday. On Thursday, though, the board said that it still intended sell but to a preferred suitor: NYCO Renaissance.
Continuing with the New York City Opera and the bid on its name, a bitter rivalry between two groups fighting to reinvent the company played out in court on Tuesday for not just its title...but its remaining assets, too.
The New York City Opera has been in a grueling lawsuit that has convened in court since it filed for bankruptcy in 2013. For now, the brand of the City Opera is still in the hearts of most New York operagoers, but whether it will make a comeback has yet to be seen. The City Opera board has elected to sell its name and other assets, per "The New York Times," to a group called NYCO Renaissance. NYCO, thus, has plans to make Michael Capasso the general manager of a newly reconstituted opera company. Capasso, though, has a notorious record with his own, small Dicapo Opera Theater, which still owes money to its musicians and singers.
As a dramatic art form, opera thrives on desperate situations and narrow escapes. So too does the San Diego Opera, which has been pulled back from the brink of dissolution by a two-week reprieve and a last-minute $1 million gift from a board member.
It was an absolute heartbreak, indeed, to hear that New York City Opera closed its doors to the public after 70 years of service. But now, Plácido Domingo--a true superstar who made his New York debut with NYCO--has agreed to sing at the 70th anniversary benefit concert to honor the company's founding.
Any year brings its share of joy, sadness, triumphs, tragedies and just plain weirdnesses. We journalists are there to document them all. And yet we enjoy a good story, or feel emotion at a heart-wrenching one, as much as anyone, so in looking back at 2013 these are what spring to mind. At a time of political and economic upheaval (for all that various experts speak of an economic recovery starting to take hold), sadly many of the ones that ran and ran are of a rather melancholy vein.
"I have no real training, and anybody who's watched me conduct can tell that. But I have a lot of practical experience, and I have a lot of knowledge about the art form. I get results somehow." -- Antonio Pappano
So, in an effort to keep all you Classicalites abreast of each and every situation, we'll be trawling the web for the best headlines--those stories, those people making the biggest waves.
New York City Opera has announced it will close; Classicalite take its measure.
And with the world's best musicians, singers, dancers and actors going back to repertory work after their summer stocks, there's more good news happening now than there was, say, back in September.
In a tragedy worthy of opera itself, the New York City Opera has breathed its last.
Many think online crowd-sourced funding the answer to our prayers. Or it could be a nail in the coffin.