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.

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