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New York City Opera to Forgo 2008-09 Mainstage Season in State Theater for Concert Presentations
23rd April, 2008
New York City Opera plans to eliminate a regular mainstage 2008-09 season in favor of concert presentations while its home, Lincoln Center's New York State Theater, undergoes renovations as part of the complex's redevelopment project, the Associated Press has reported.
City Opera had previously publicized the possibility of closing its doors for part of its spring 2009 season, so that the slated renovation of the State Theater — which it shares with the New York City Ballet — might be finished before the arrival of its incoming general manager and artistic director, Gerard Mortier. In an interview published by OPERA NEWS in September 2008, City Opera board chair Susan L. Baker acknowledged that, in light of the redevelopment, "it may be necessary for us to be dark for a little bit."
It now seems that the company will do away with any presentations in the State Theater during the 2008-09 season, and will return to the venue in 2009-10, the first season of Mortier's tenure. The theater's renovations will reportedly include a larger, adjustable orchestra pit.
The AP has reported that, as part of next season's presentations, City Opera will perform a 90-minute concert featuring excerpts of works by Pierre Boulez, Britten, Debussy, Ives, Messiaen and Stravinsky. The company reportedly plans to announce specifics about its 2008-09 season in May.
Mortier, who currently serves as director of the Opéra National de Paris, was announced as the City Opera's new chief in February of last year. At the time of the announcement, he said he intended his inaugural season to consist largely of twentieth-century works that included Britten's Death in Venice, Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach, Janáček's The Makropulos Case, Adams's Nixon in China, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise. The company reportedly intends for Messiaen's work to be presented at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue. Likewise, City Opera told the AP that, in anticipation of Mortier's first season, it is venturing to find a means of underwriting audio recordings of a number of American operas, including Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner and Charles Wuorinen's Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Release link:
http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/
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