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.
Another suitor for the job, architect Gene Kaufman, claims that City Opera's board in the past has mishandled its affairs, one of them concerning their endowment, estimated at $4.5 million.
But Kaufman, while claiming City Opera depleted its endowment, has also come on a little strong, having exaggerated his relationships with Opera America, a service organization, and the Glimmerglass Festival, which puts on opera in upstate New York.
Bids for City Opera's name, though, are due Jan. 12 but will convene Jan. 20 if multiple bids are placed.
Some are embracing the plan of NYCO Renaissance, which wants to bring some City Opera productions back to Lincoln Center — at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center — which has $2.5 million in backing.
It might not be such a bad plan, but for now the future has yet to be written, so we reflect on the past below:
