Where your hard-earned donations to NYCO go, part who knows I’ve lost track
“The New York City Opera, which just reported a $19.9 million deficit in 2008-09, paid Gerard Mortier $400,000 for his stint as part-time general-manager in-waiting.” [Bloomberg News]
Can I be heir apparent too? I’ll be even cheaper! 250K and willing to negotiate!
Come on…
me too – willing to negotiate AND fly coach!
Oh, no, Daddy does not do coach. Oh hell, I’ll do coach too. And take the bus if necessary.
Wait, Lindoro, does this mean you’re not “Daddy”?
You should not ask that type of questions in mixed company.
(1) Gee a high priced whore ‘of any persuasion’ would be cheaper and a damn side more exciting suggesting things to get up to, than Mortier could think of , in a lifetime. Perhaps some mod composer should re-adapt Beckett’s ‘Godot’ into an opera :titled ‘Waiting for Mortier’
2) To get there to get that sort of money, forget even the bus- someone would be even willing to ‘thumb/ bum’ rides or totally slum it by slipping on a old dirty train freight car.
(3 All that mashing of teeth from failed opportunities, to be bigger ‘happy pigs in shit’ in their social troughs. Those two supercilious creatures , going just by that photo -need some money for teeth whitening. Grinding away with gritted teeth, and forced smiles is bad for them.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, let the predictable Mortier bashing begin.
I mean, let’s just ignore this bit:
“I don’t see first class often,” said Becky Klein, a partner with the executive search firm Phillips Oppenheim, of contracts for cultural leaders. “That is an odd one.”
She said the severance was in line with the contracts of leaders at other major cultural institutions.
So Mortier played the bumpkins in New Yawk for first class airline tickets, good for him.
Really? Is it in line with the contracts of leaders at other major cultural institutions who did absolutely nothing?
Great point!
Oh wait…..it’s really dumb. Let’s see: Mortier approved NYCO’s portion of the State Theater remodel, put the company in mothballs during that, planned a great season of operas to differentiate itself from the mausoleum across the plaza (and the Met showed their thanks by pinching his idea of doing Nixon in China), planned further seasons of standard rep that wouldn’t scare off the “Oh noes! Opera died with Verdi!” crowd and was readying the first season.
Yeah, what a slacker.
Well, I’m a fundraiser in the arts and I can tell you how hard it is for an arts organization to raise $400K. Considering that Mortier contributed nothing and only damaged the organization with his departure, it’s amazing to me that he got paid so much. I mean, wasn’t there a rumour that he never had a signed contract? Why would NYCO be obliged to pay him?
It’s amazing to you? How about reading the article or my bolded part above?
I haven’t bothered to read the article so I’ll allow there may be a revelatory bit of information in there that might change my mind. But I’m confused how a guy who didn’t have a signed contract was entitled to severance.
Still, you are right that he did do a fair bit of artistic planning for the company, if it all came to naught.
well, did you all see what they paid rekers for his expert opinion???? he made tons of money, and used it to pay his rent boy.
Hey! That rent boy had to work hard for his money. he had to lift the luggage, didn’t you see the picture at the airport? Oh, wait….
Well, I guess that was not the luggage Rekers had in mind.
This reportage is outrageous. When will they publish the financial states or straits of the recently ousted executives at CAMI?
Bloomberg News Services , for whatever reason, has been incredibly hostile towards NYCO for some time now…as has THIS very web-site, from time to time…….
while I’m not a defender of the more outrageous antics coming from the Board of Directors at CityOpera, I must take , with a HUGE grain of salt, any so-called “objective” reportage from either source, concerning the Company….
I don’t condone NYCO’s board’s actions (be it Baker or whoever), but this article has Manuela Hoelterhoff’s fingerprints all over it (well, that’s not completely true; if were vintage MH, it would be seething in venom). MH has the title of culture editor (or something close) at Bloomberg News and is the partner of Francesca Zambello, the director and spurned aspirant to the title of general director at NYCO, post-Mortier. Steele got the job over ‘Cesca and she and MH will go to their graves grumbling about it.
This is just another in a lengthy list of anti-NYCO pieces from Bloomberg.
This is pretty much just numbers they garnered off of NYCOs 990 (or whatever it is). This can only be news to people who didn’t take out their calculators when Mortier left. I don’t think MH really “givesa” about Mortier and since FZ is now taking over Glimmerglass, and probably WNO soon, I doubt she’s too worried about the George and George (and Rufus) show at the State Theater.
Also, sorry, Mortier is like 80. It seems cruel to expect someone that age to fly coach, sorry but there it is.
In Europe they hold people accountable for this type of mismanagement of funds.
That’s Europe. In the U.S. we call it the Bush-Obama style of spending, and everyone looks the other way.
You must be kidding!!! Hundreds of millions of euros have disappeared out of the Italian subventions – diverted by superintendants and artistic directors – AND THEN THE GUYS GET THE SAME JOBS IN DIFFERENT THEATERS WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
The reconstruction of the San Carlo was a case in point – it came in at FIVE TIMES THE ORIGINAL COST ESTIMATE.
Mortier may, in fact, have earned his pay. But I’m curious how his pay stacks up against George Steele, who left his previous post in rather a hurry, too.
Doesn’t anyone read the articles our hardworking Doyenne links to?
FTFA: City Opera’s current general manager, George Steel, who took the job in January 2009, earns a salary of $360,000, Nadon said
Henry H, do you happen to know the amount of $$ in Steele’s separation package from Dallas Opera?
Meant “Steel” for “Steele.”
I would have hoped that Mr Steel (whom I actually respect, quite a lot , in his current position as director at NYCO) would have had to Pay Dallas…for breaking his contract with THEM, rather then have received any compensation from DallasOpera…….
Good question, various Google searches didn’t provide any answers.
Dallas was glad to get rid of him. More than glad people who were on the ground there when the fiasco went down tell me. His seperation package probably included being driven to the airport by the President of the board personally.
Ok If he was paid that sort of money….
He should have been paid in low denomination wads. Then made to roll the lot up and stick it up his….broadside.
Heavens, you would have heard F sharps of the highest caliber coming out of NYCO :from a ‘bel-canto’ Mortier, no less.
The biggest way to deconstruct the amount some people are paid: count down the days, hours and minutes they actually would work during a year. Then allot ‘toilet break time’…then calculate how much each time they get – for just going to the ‘john’ and wiping their….
Gee, you can come up with ridiculous amounts of money, for some of the salary figures given out to people for such task.A toilet is the great leveler of mankind, a place where each person is equal- whether poor or rich.
they give a new meaning to “From the House of the Dead”
Dear NYCO,
If you will let me be the General Manager of NYCO (that is, absolute Bing-type autocratic ruler), I will stage the following operas during the 2012-13 season:
1. St Francois d’Assise with lots of laser lights (starting time of 5:30 pm)
2. Mascagni’s Iris (on a bare stage)
3. Gnecchi’s Cassandra with two has-been Italian divas
4. Das Wunder der Heliane
5. Handel’s Ezio (in a Regie Nazi concentration camp setting)
6. King Roger
7. Ariane et Barbe-Bleu
8. Bloch’s Macbeth (for Delavan and Flanigan)
9. A totally uncut French Don Carlos (starting time of 5 pm)
10. Cui’s Angelo (the same characters as La Gioconda)
11. a new commission of The Trojan Women (music by Rufus Wainwright)
12. Maw’s Sophie’s Choice
13. A totally uncut Rienzi using the old Pearl Fishers sets (starting time of 4:30 pm)
14. A new commission…The Lion in Winter (for Delavan and Malfitano). Composer to be decided.
15. A new commission. Menotti’s (Is he still alive?) Suddenly, Last Summer (for Racette and Malfitano)
16. Gomes’ Fosca with Julliard students
These are my announced plans.
May I now have my check, please?
rysanekfreak:
The thing is… I would actually subscribe to that season, in a flash…!!!…while probably skipping the “Ezio”..unless …you could make a REAL GOOD case for that setting….lol…!
rysanekfreak, absolutely briliant.
But, of course, my entire season will have to be scrapped and replaced by a few peformances of Carmen, Boheme, Traviata, and Butterfly. Such is life. Sorry…and alas.
I was expecting a scrapped season replaced by 3 nights of monodramas. I guess I have no future in opera house administration.
monodrama – finally! Was anyone at the Deborah Polaski Erwartung last Sunday?
The Hamburg Opera has announced her in six Götterdämmerung Brünnhildes in October.
She is not singing the complete cycle later in the season (Eva Johansson will), so it is probably the last chance to hear her Brünnhilde. Could she still do this? I am tempted to travel for this. I only heard in Elektra a long time ago (James King was in the cast). Unforgettable evening.
11. a new commission of The Trojan Women (music by Rufus Wainwright)
There’s a perfectly good version by Reimann, no need to inflict Wainwright on anybody again.
I’d go to #1, 2 (though I’d choose Il Piccolo Marat for obscure Mascagni), 4 (every performance), 6, 7, 8 and 12, if it’s the revised version used in Washington.
When do build-your-own subscriptions go on sale?
Henry be very careful what you wish for…I heard “Il Piccolo Marat” a year ago with Teatro Grattacielo. Believe me it is total dreck – hysterical declamation in the passaggio with no vocal melodies in sight. The orchestration has passages of interest but the whole thing is simplistic (bash the bad guy on the head, save mom and run off with the girl). Really not worth reviving.
However, “Iris” and “I Gioielli della Madonna” are worth doing. Was it true that David Stivender persuaded the Met to revive this for Scotto? Would have been a more suitable late career vehicle than “Gioconda” and “Macbeth”. I think it was scrapped when Stivender died.
You got the job! And don’t both signing a contract. We trust you.
Hi rysanekfreak – who are the has been Italian divas you have in mind?
At the Met’s 5/12 “Lulu”, Julius Rudel wandered alone during the intermissions, unnoticed or ignored by other operagoers. I last saw him three years ago (at NY State Theatre) and was surprised at how differently he looks. A courtly man, a good conductor, and an often adventurous impresario. I hope Maestro Rudel, who has been a widower for some time, doesn’t always need to go to the opera alone.
Actually, some of my best opera experiences have been when I have gone alone; and NO, it has nothing to do with the bathroom or anything of the sorts.
I’ve seen Boheme, Satyagraha, Butterfly and Traviata at the Met by myself in different trips and I do not regret going at it alone. They were all highlights of my opera experience, all for different reasons, some the singing and some the productions.
Sometimes i would rather go at it alone (and get your minds out of the gutter again….)
In my more feckless days, I would randomly meet other “single” operagoers on the Met’s grand staircase, we’d start chatting, etc. Following one “Tristan” the ensuring liebesnacht lasted for two days!
Best of all was my very first Met visit, for a “Faust” when two fellow standees took me to their Washington Heights apt. after the performance. Long subway ride way uptown but well worth the trip. (And this was after an early a.m. trip to the city, a late a.m. “Juliet of the Spirits” flick, a “Funny Girl” matinee with Babs and a long wait in the Met’s standing room line. Ou sont les nieges d’antan?)
ensuing liebesnacht, not ensuring…
In my country we call those one hell of a rump (and thus people would call you a slut)
In my house, those are the tales worth recounting.