New York City Opera files for bankruptcy

[umbertino]

by: Marilyn Bechtel

October 4 2013

 

 

With the Oct. 3 announcement that New York City Opera is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the city and the entire country are losing a major cultural institution.

 

When the company was founded nearly 70 years ago, then-Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia promised it would provide "cultural entertainment at moderate prices," in contrast to the Metropolitan Opera, which served a predominantly upper class audience.

 

And though it often faced financial difficulties, the company lived up to that role, offering innovative performances and providing launching pads for some of the finest U.S. opera singers, including soprano Beverly Sills and tenor Placido Domingo.

 

In recent years the opera's difficulties had become especially acute, resulting in a season once featuring as many as 130 performances slashed to just 16 last year.

 

In 2011 Artistic Director George Steel moved the company out of its longtime home at Lincoln Center, a move intended to save money, but sharply criticized by the unions representing singers, instrumentalists, directors and stage managers as contributing to further deterioration in the company's financial situation.

 

Tino Gagliardi, president of American Federation of Musicians Local 802, which represents NYCO's orchestra musicians, blamed the move from Lincoln Center and the decision to slash the season for the company's financial crash.

He pointed out that though they strongly disagreed with the move, the "devoted musicians made great sacrifices in wages and benefits to keep the Opera afloat," including accepting replacement of the former 29-week guaranteed season with payment by rehearsal and performance.

 

"Lamentably," Gagliardi said, "due to egregious mismanagement and a paucity of vision, instead of reaping the benefits of a strengthening economy, this most storied of cultural institutions now lies in ruin."

 

Gail Kruvand, assistant principal bass player with the opera's orchestra and an ex-officio member of NYCO's board, told the Village Voice that at Lincoln Center the company had "everything under one roof" - offices, rehearsal space, costume and wig shops as well as a theater - for $4.5 million a year.

 

After the move, she said, "We have no home. We have no sets ... They were sold. Our music library was destroyed in the Superstorm Sandy flooding. The company has been systematically dismantled."

Kruvand said the opera musicians "look forward to playing opera together again," though she did not know how that might be possible.

 

The city's current mayor, Michael Bloomberg - a billionaire who has supported City Opera in the past, cynically told reporters that neither he nor the city would help in the present situation because NYCO's "business model doesn't seem to be working."

 

The opera performers' difficulties have been shared in recent years by musicians throughout the country, who have fought bitter labor struggles against pay cuts, cutbacks in the size of ensembles and length of seasons, and attempts to classify them as "independent contractors"

 

 

http://www.peoplesworld.org/new-york-city-opera-files-for-bankruptcy/

 

[flatdawg]

New York City Opera files for bankruptcy

You'll find very few here care about NYC and even fewer care about opera.

[umbertino]

That's ok flatdawg. I deemed it interesting and decided to post it.

[Maggie123]

You'll find very few here care about NYC and even fewer care about opera.

 

I saw your post earlier... I hear you.

 

Just wanted to tell you I have never experienced that world... But...

 

My daughter's high school's chorus teacher in a little ole' podunk suburb of Portland OR... arranged for us to have tickets to every "dress rehersal" for every show at the hall. I vollentered (SP) to take our kiddos there... WOW!

 

I can't tell you how beautiful of an experience it was for me to see the whole season... on the way home... listening to the radio with the kids...

 

I'd say... WHOA!!! THAT IS NOT SINGING!

 

What a Gift that was... I am sad to hear the source may be dwindling. Very Sad.

[magawatt]

Our son is a professional musician, fortunately not in New York where producers would be happy to have actors lip syncing to canned soundtracks.

[TPSprayduster]

That's ok flatdawg. I deemed it interesting and decided to post it.

I find opera is an interesting trade.  Some folks don't like it because do not understand it.  Now if it is a banjo and playing a whiskey jug then some might understand that music.  New York City is a hell of a town.  Again Umbertino keep on posting.  I am proud to say i have been to a few performances, 2 in Paris, Dubai and here in texas.  But again you have to be able to get out of your confort zone.

[millionaire in training]

I cant imagen the City of New York allowing it to go under.It's a huge cultural landmark in the arts. I know they will find a way of not loosing it. If it was in a small unknown town I could see this happening but New York  no way.

 

It still goes to show you how all things are affected in this economy. No matter what they are.

[Patty B]

Thanks for posting, friend.

I happen to love NYC and 

find it very sad that such a

landmark is in such trouble.

Seems hard to believe