magic to do
Articulate, awe-inspring, alliterative administrator The Man of Steel spoke yesterday to New York One, defining his vision for the mission of the New York City Opera:
“Championing new repertoire and discovering old repertoire. And particularly promoting American operas and American opera singers and providing visionary new productions of standard repertoire. So it’s a very clear mission,” said Steel.
The ingenious intendant emphasized that he does not intend to “downsize” productions, stating, “Whether that’s dark and disturbing or flamboyant and flashy, we want to make sure that it’s an intense and wonderful theatrical experience.” He then added, “Welcome to Doug Henning‘s Wild and Wacky World of Illusion… where magic is fun!”
The complete report, including a few sound bytes from Mr. Steel, may be found at NY1.
Steel has already raised quite a bit of money, so there are certainly people willing to put their money on him. His track record at Miller was impressive, not just artistically, but fiscally. It may take time to redefine the company, but first he has to get them back on track financially. The season seems reasonably doable. By the way, the entire Juilliard Falstaff production only cost $22,000, so it is possible to do great things without a bloated budget.
How much those singers, musicians and chorus get paid there? Sets built in a union shop? Costumes? Props? designers all Union? Please do not compare apples and oranges… unless you add tequila.
You have a point about the unions. The Glimmerglass partnership worked in that way because they built the sets up there – in a non-union house. I can’t remember NYCO ever doing new productions without a partner. Even the great Xerxes production had made the rounds from Santa Fe to LA, Boston and Seattle. Does anyone know if the Alden Giovanni comes from elsewhere? I can’t imagine they’re going to go it completely alone.
#51. Steel has raised quite a bit of money? For real? “Philanthropist Pledges 2 Million to keep NYCO going” would be a heck of a headline. They shouldn’t be sitting on the good news!
Also, I don’t really think you can say Juilliard is doing Falstaff for 22K so we can do Don Giovanni at NYCO for 46K. Please Juilliard is a school.
Is that Steel’s vision “As good as a good school production?” Tickets to Juilliard are only $20 and they are sold out because everyone wants a peak at the Juilliard (and now Met I guess) kids. I have seen some very clever things on that stage but I have also seen alot of scenes acted out on an empty black stage. I don’t think NYCO patrons are going to go for a “Chicago” style “Don Giovanni.”
The NYCO production of “Falstaff” (A Glimmerglass co-production) at least has a real set for Falstaff’s room, a garden set with trees, a riverfront set, and a pretty elaborate woods set for act 3. And people criticize it for being too spare. What do you think would happen if NYCO presented a DG that was one set with a fly for “Crossover” type scenes (like the Juilliard set) especially since the Met introduced a new DG a couple of years ago.
I hope NYC has opened up its pockets and that NYCO is now flush with cash, but I’m not betting on it.
#53. I am pretty sure the most recent production of “Semele”,”Margaret Garner” and “Capriccio” were all NYCO go it alone productions. And also, the “Hollander” now sold to WNO was also a go it alone production. The very old “Candide” I think was built by Beverly Sills for NYCO alone too. Oddly it seems information about productions available for rental has vanished from the black dot NYCO website.
#54: Fair enough about comparing a NYCO production to a “school production” – but remember, one of the best Kellogg-era productions, IMHO, was the very simple Tosca set. Black and red, jail cell a mere suggestion. Not a lot of dough spent on that, but it was really striking to look at, and that gash of red in Act 2 was memorable. I’d take it over the Zeffirelli super-literal reproduction of Rome, magnificent though it may be. I think directors like Christopher Alden, love him or hate him, are really good at doing a lot on a small budget.
I guess my beef here is all the anticipated Schadenfreude at NYCO’s demise. Steel inherited a mess, and we ought to support his efforts at least until he has a chance to put his mark on the company. Then, all bets are off!
Oh, one more thing – Margaret Garner was a co-production, with Cincinnati Opera and Detroit, I think. Not sure about the others, though Cendrillon was a French production originally. Candide was a coproduction with Scottish Opera. So they really haven’t gone it alone very often. Nobody does anymore, unless they rent their sets, which have to be fairly traditional to be practical.
Pousette, “Semele”, “Capriccio” and “Margaret Garner” were new NYCO productions. MG had been done before but with a different production.
I’m a fan of Mark Lamos’s NYCO/Glimmerglass fascist “Tosca” too. But there’s no way that production was anything like 46k. I think this is one of the productions NYCO poured money into after it came down from Glimmerglass so no one, except Robin Thompson who is probably in Fiji somewhere or Paul Kellogg who is so retired he wasn’t even seen at Glimmerglass this year, could tell us exactly what. I’ll guess 300k. Anyone else?
We can all “Wait and see” on Mr. Steel but we can’t deny there’s no information out there to indicate he will be able to pull it off. 1.3M for the Miller? 3 One act Operas produced? Running Dallas for 6 months? How does this add up to being able to trump Robin Thompson in the programming area and Paul Kellog in fundraising? I just don’t see it.
I hope he finds the money, I hope we don’t loose NYCO. But for the longevity of the company I think Francesca Zambello would have been the better choice.