In Wednesday’s (4/3) New York Times, Anthony Tommasini writes, “The visionary architect Frank Gehry remains committed to designing the performing arts center at the site of the former World Trade Center. But what exactly has Mr. Gehry been asked to design? What is it for? Which institutions, ensembles or companies will perform in the complex? Who will be its artistic leader? These basic questions seem more open than ever with the recent announcement that the Joyce Theater, the last remaining cultural organization of the four that were to be part of the arts complex at ground zero, will not anchor the center after all. … Instead the complex will be a multidisciplinary space for theater, music, film and dance, according to Maggie Boepple, its president. … The main lesson this venture is in danger of ignoring is that in the conception of an arts complex, form should follow function. … I keep wondering what might have been had Paul Kellogg, the former general and artistic director of New York City Opera, realized his vision of moving that company to a new house at the development site. … What that complex needed, Mr. Kellogg argued, was an institution with a proven record and a clear mission. City Opera, the ‘people’s opera,’ as it had long been called, was up to the job.”
Posted April 3, 2013
