At a time when New York’s opera companies are supposed to be going into estivation (I mean, Peter Gelb is in Vietnam, for heaven’s sake!) there’s certainly no lack of breaking news about New York City Opera. Today’s heart-rending roundup, after the jump. 

On Bloomberg, Philip Boroff (he of the “Carnegie Hall Stagehand Moving Props Makes $530044” shockeroo), spills the beans on NYCO’s finances. Most breathtaking factoid: attendance in the George Steel’s first season (2009-10) stood at less than 25% of attendance in Paul Kellogg‘s final year (2006-07).

At the New York Times, Dan Wakin has gathered the gloomiest group of quotes imaginable, stopping just short of  “O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see,” though I think Cori Ellison probably did say  that while the recorder was paused.

Wakin best catches the apocalyptic tone when he wails, “The anguished expressions of regret came amid a deafening silence from Lincoln Center and City Opera officials, and leaders of other cultural institutions who might serve as hosts for the company in its new peripatetic persona.”

And, Bloomberg again: “The union said it will protest the end of guarantees by picketing outside Steel’s home, among other measures.”