Tales From The Second Great Depression
by tristero
This is terribly sad, and ominous:
In February 2007 New York City Opera staked its future on the vision of Gerard Mortier, a European impresario known for provocative productions and a penchant for shaking things up. On Friday the company and Mr. Mortier said they were parting ways.
In City Opera’s bold venture, Mr. Mortier was to take on the jobs of general manager and artistic director in the 2009-10 season. It agreed to his plans to scrap old-fashioned traditions, mount challenging 20th-century works, bring opera to the people in their neighborhoods and extensively renovate the company’s home, the New York State Theater, rather than try to find a new building.
Now the company, already troubled by a recent string of bad news like layoffs and furloughs, said it would abandon his programming for next season, although the renovation would continue…
“I told them with the best will, I can’t do that,” Mr. Mortier said. “I cannot go to run a company that has less than the smallest company in France.” Mr. Mortier is in the final year of running the Paris National Opera, which has a budget closer to $300 million. “You don’t need me for that,” he said…
Among his moves at City Opera, Mr. Mortier commissioned two of America’s pre-eminent composers, Philip Glass and Charles Wuorinen, to write operas for it. Mr. Glass’s subject was the life of Walt Disney, and Mr. Wuorinen’s a version of “Brokeback Mountain.” Mr. Mortier said he would try to find other houses to take on the commissions…
His lineup at City Opera was to have included Messiaen’s “St. François d’Assise,” Stravinsky’s “Rake’s Progress,” Glass’s “Einstein on the Beach,” Janacek’s “Makropulos Case,” Britten’s “Death in Venice” and Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande.” He planned to move the company toward a stagione season, in which productions follow one another rather than overlapping.
As always and of course, problems in the arts pale in comparison to problems of war and poverty. Still, this is a tragedy. To those of us who know these works and composers – and love them, and know that anyone with an open set of ears would also love them – this was a season to die for. It had the potential to revolutionize the very notion of opera in this country, transforming it from a museum attraction with 200 year old masterpieces and a rapidly aging audience, back into a living tradition. So terribly sad.