In Sunday’s (8/16) New York Times, Anthony Tommasini describes his meeting with New York City Opera General Manager George Steel at the Koch Theater construction site, “tangible evidence, as he sees it, that the company is coming back. ‘We are on a solid financial footing, and are moving swiftly on a road to revival,’ he said. … Mr. Steel’s steadiness and youthful enthusiasm (he is a boyish 43) seem to have paid off. Since he arrived, he said, some $10.5 million has been raised for various funds and future projects. … The City Opera season is scheduled to start on Nov. 5 with ‘American Voices,’ a gala program of songs and choruses from American operas and musicals. Two days later comes a revival of Hugo Weisgall’s formidable opera ‘Esther,’ a City Opera commission that received its premiere in 1993 in a limited but enthusiastically received run. This production, the first of only five for the season, should truly reveal the artistic state of the City Opera.”
August 17, 2009
