Neither pure nor wise nor good
What better way to mark the passing of the monumental Hal Prince than with a recollection of that nexus at which his and Leonard Bernstein‘s worst work intersected? //www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IG-3aeR92E
View ArticleOf two minds
Mezzo Blythe Gaissert, Hannah after in NYCO’s As One. I wanted to like As One. I really did. This chamber opera, with only one character, two singers, and a string quartet who occasionally serve as a...
View Article“More wait!”
New York City Opera today offered a demi-announcement of half their next season. The season will open with the Glimmerglass Festival staging of Robert Ward‘s The Crucible, which the company premiered...
View ArticleVo’ farmi più gaia, più fulgida ancora
This float (artist’s conception) will perhaps anchor New York City Opera’s presence in tomorrow’s Pride parade. Says the company’s rep, “City Opera invites you, our fans, to march with the artists who...
View ArticleMusical theater of the absurd
It’s easy to see why Leonard Bernstein’s Candide was a flop when it premiered on Broadway. A quick look through Voltaire’s source material reveals a plot full of obscenity and atrocity: floggings,...
View ArticleCuts like a knife
Aside from being the choice of the revived New York City Opera for its opening double-bill this season, you may wonder what Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci have in common. Both operas...
View ArticleA hole in the Hedda
“Hopper’s Wife, a chamber opera with music by Stewart Wallace set to an obscenity-strewn text by Michael Korie, turned out to be the most unpleasant piece as I’ve heard since NYCO’s notorious fiasco...
View ArticleAmbizioso spirto, tu sei NYCO
New York City Opera Renaissance certainly seems to have its eyes on the future, joining in a partnership with the Teatro del Giglio and Opera Carolina to present La fanciulla del West. NYCO-R’s general...
View ArticleA star is reborn?
The New York City Opera Board has signed an agreement to transfer its name and intellectual property to NYCO Renaissance, Ltd., which is spearheaded by Roy Niederhoffer, Chairman and Jeffrey Laikind,...
View ArticleSlow but steady
With almost three weeks to go, New York City Opera’s Kickstarter campaign is only $956,985 short of its goal. [@coopnytimes]
View ArticleAnd the 2013 Pubies go to…
One startling upset catches the eye among the many winners (if that is the word) of the 2013 Parterre Box Awards. The surprise is “Worst New Production at the Met,” a dubious honor won by David Alden‘s...
View ArticleCrave the date
It only just occurred to La Cieca that the opening night of New York City Opera’s 2013 season—the premiere of their new production of Powder Her Face—is February 15, a date that sounds oddly familiar...
View ArticleSunk costs
More bad news: “New York City Opera’s musical library and archives, located 75 Broad St., have been damaged by water that all but filled the basement of the building. Hundreds of boxes were submerged...
View ArticleGeorge sent me
La Cieca is sure it’s nothing, nothing at all, but she does think it’s curious that (per a tipster) George Steel has quietly called a staff meeting for NYCO tomorrow, with further confabs with the...
View ArticleAll for the best
George Steel (center) announces that New York City Opera is destroying, giving away or selling off most of its stock of repertory productions. Presumably a few of the old sets will be kept on hand to...
View ArticleTony award
“For decades New York City Opera was a model of an organization with a clear mission. Now there may be no opera company, orchestra or ensemble more in need of a mission reboot…. Though Mr. Steel has...
View ArticleLyre’s poker
The Underworld as corporate boardroom, Pluto a “suit,” the damned a bunch of clerks tapping away at laptops. When the lyre of Orpheus is heard (it never is seen, and it sounds like a recorder), rose...
View ArticleFrom Hell
“About the only good thing that can be said for New York City Opera’s Orpheus, which opened Saturday night, is that it made the rest of the company’s feeble season seem scintillating by comparison.”...
View ArticleBoy meets ghoul
“Zombies are impossible to escape these days — on television, film, video games, even reworkings of Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies). And now New York City Opera has given us a “Così Fan...
View Article