Wall retired earlier this year as Wall Vice-Chairman and General Counsel of Philip Morris International Inc. As Chairman of the Board of NYCO, he has the opportunity of making opera seem as “addictive” as he has previously asserted cigarettes are not.

According to the company’s press release, the season (beginning October 28) features mostly 20th century works, including

New York premieres, in new productions, of Leonard Bernstein’s A Quiet Place and Stephen Schwartz’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon; a daring triple bill of Monodramas (including the US stage premiere of “Neither” by Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett, and the world stage premiere of John Zorn’s “La Machine de l’être”, performed with Schoenberg’s “Erwartung”); and the return of Strauss’s Intermezzo and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love

What apparently began life as a revival of the company’s venerable Turandot has evolved into “An Evening with Christine Brewer” season opening gala.

Gushes NYCO GM/AD George Steel, “Most of all, I love the incredible range of compositional styles this season: from the transparent simplicity of Donizetti to the opulent middle-period Richard Strauss to the blend of the popular and classical worlds in Bernstein and Stephen Schwartz—all this topped off by the delicious trio of Schoenberg, Feldman and Zorn. This is what City Opera was made to do, and what makes City Opera unique.”

For “Boys’ Night at L’Étoile” (Friday, March 26 at 8pm), you and your sister flamers are encouraged to

Join fellow opera queens and cultural gays for a fabulous night of drinks, light fare, incredible entertainment, and French connections. The Juilliard-trained opera singer and drag performer Shequida serves as Mistress of Ceremonies, guaranteed to make you say “ooh la la” as she shows off her five-octave range with opera selections and pop hits.

I warn you, cher public, you are not going to believe who the honoree is for the spring gala. 

(Funniest bit: “Jeremy Gerard is an editor and critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.”)

Which is pretty fucking impressive, considering that the last time TT heard an “unenhanced” opera performance in that space was more than 10 years ago. 

La Cieca wonders, just what was Tony’s golden yardstick for measuring purity of aural experience? Could it have been Madama Butterfly with Oksana Krovytska and Barton Green under the baton of Guido Johannes Rumstadt? (How long ago was that, you ask? It was the NYCO premiere of the Mark Lamos production of this opera, that how long ago it was.) Was it Le nozze di Figaro featuring a “strapping” Dean Ely? (“As an actor he was hearty, yet light on his feet…”) Or could it have been the “naked splendor” production of Orfeo ed Euridice?

Ten years is a long time, but apparently not for this Mary Tudor of reviewers, after whose death, La Cieca suspects, we will find “acoustical enhancement” written on his breast.

The embattled NYCO chairwoman is 59 years young today!

The people have spoken, and so from henceforth George Steel will be known by his, whatchamacallit, you know, his sobriquet, which (per your decree) is “The Man of Steel.”

La Cieca thought she should review at least a couple of the biggest challenges facing The Man of Steel as he and the NYCO begin a restoration project that, as the saying goes, makes Hoover Dam look like an egg cup.

First and foremost, of course, is giving the heave-ho to Susan L. Baker, preferably after guilting her into flinging a couple million bucks to the company strings-free. Since (as La Cieca hears) Steel was not Baker’s choice to ascend the throne, she should reasonably be readying her exit even as we speak. Prediction: an announced resignation at the same time Steel offcially starts the job in February. 

Now the hard part.  In every medium sized or larger opera company, there are a number of department heads who take on specialized tasks: you might think of them as the worker bees of the hive, whereas the General Director is more of a queen. (Though this is not always true; in fact, La Cieca hears whispers that one big advantage Steel has with the current NYCO board is that he is a smooth pimp who loves the pussy. Or, to put it in a less litigation-friendly way, rumor has it that the board were quietly hoping for a nice straight family man type for the job. But let us not go too far afield, or for that matter, let us not talk about pussy this early in the morning. Ewww.)

To continue. Among these positions that are both generally understood as necessary and currently vacant at the New York City Opera are Chief Financial Officer and Artistic Administrator. The latter of these two positions is particularly crucial because over the last decade the AA at NYCO has been Robin Thompson, who actually expanded the role to include broader artistic decisions that strictly speaking should have been made by Paul Kellogg. (In his defense, Kellogg was a very busy man during that era, what with lobbying the city to make NYCO a gift of a brand new opera house and keeping his bowtie collection neatly arranged.)

So these are two of the about five major vacancies that need to be filled at NYCO like, immediately, and these are exactly the type of job that tend to require a many-month search for a right fit, which of course includes finding someone who is actually available.

Oh, and did I mention Development Director? That spot is vacant at NYCO right now too, and obviously these next couple of seasons are going to be all about finding new sources of philanthropy. La Cieca is told that one of the selling points offered the board about the selection of Gerard Mortier lo those many months ago was that the big name would inspire a veritable flood of new benefactors to the company, thus funding his extravagant plans. Sadly (if you look at it that way), Mortier turned out to be pretty much a dud as a cash cow; according to La Cieca’s sources, donations to the company stayed more or less flat after the Mortier announcement.

Now, it may well be that The Man of Steel can charm the gold teeth out of a dowager or two; he has a reputation as a charismatic guy. But keep in mind that every hour spent fundraising is an hour spent away from creation and administration, which until now anyway have seemed like Steel’s strong suits.

Before taking a break, La Cieca will repeat a rumor she heard about either the first NYCO season or maybe the one after that. The Man of Steel, one hears, has posited the idea of “theme seasons” — you know, “in their various ways each of these operas is about the changing role of women in the Faust legend,” that kind of thing. One season theme title La Cieca has heard is “The Perfume of French Opera,” which would make for a great tie-in with Susan Graham‘s fragrance launch.

La Cieca tries to be charitable, especially to members of her own gender, but she has come to the conclusion that it is time for Susan Baker to shut the hell up. NYCO’s new General Director has been chosen and is about to take office, and the more Baker yammers, the more she makes George Steel come off like an ineffectual lapdog, which goodness knows La Cieca hopes he’s not going to be. (Bad enough that some in the media are calling him “Two-Face.”) Back away from the press conferences, ma’am, and please just let your hired hand do his job.

Oh, and one other thing. If you must talk to the media (and La Cieca thinks you really mustn’t, but who listens to La Cieca?) — anyway, if you must talk to the media, please, please, please stop saying things like you hope to announce a season in mid-March. That’s just deadly, because you’ve just set yourself up for two months of will-they-or-won’t-they speculation, and then, when (as likely will happen) you don’t announce a season in mid-March, that’s yet another brick in the wall of failed NYCO promises, e.g.:

At the moment, our thinking is that if we have to be dark in the State Theater for part of the ’08-09 performance season, what we would do is have some non-traditional season in other venues,” [Baker] said.

Go on a vacation or something, Ms. Baker, but please do hush.

In what will probably stand in history as her most wrong-headed judgment call ever, on December 24 La Cieca concluded that George Steel would not accept an offer from the New York City Opera. Your doyenne cited two reasons for her position: first, that the job wouldn’t have much in the way of art to offer for a few years as the company struggled to stay alive financially and second, that dumping Dallas for New York so early on would be either a dick move or else perceived as a dick move, which in the broader view amounts to the same thing.

The first (finance vs. art) reason may or may not apply: La Cieca really is as clueless about the NYCO’s finances as, say, Susan Baker. So let’s put that one aside for the moment and move on reason #2.

Well, cher public, what do you think? Is Steel behaving like a dick, and if so, why?  Let’s begin by remembering that La Cieca doesn’t know the guy and is not very familiar with his work. So your doyenne is not going to jump to any conclusions. However, it does seem that Steel’s recent “Two-Face” behavior might be explained three different ways:

(A) Steel (though he is not a dick) is naive and doesn’t realize that his behavior comes off dickish.

(B) Steel (though he is not a dick) realizes his behavior comes off dickish, but figures with time and good work in the new position, the dicky smell will wear off.

(C) Steel is a dick, and as such NYCO should prepare for a major and brutal ass-fucking.

At the moment, La Cieca is leaning toward (B), with maybe a soupçon of (A), giving Steel the benefit of the doubt because of the floppy hair and the rimless glasses. Of course, the real proof of nondickery is in the pudding (La Cieca expresses herself badly) so we will all be waiting with great interest to hear reports of Steel’s first meetings with NYCO staff tomorrow. (That’s a hint, folks; La Cieca is fishing for gossip, and as always her word is her bond that sources remain confidential.)

He may not be interested, but he’s certainly interesting. Counter Critic Is New York City Opera!

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