NYCO Announces

[lennygoran]

Finally NYCO season announced-I'm kind of disappointed. Regards, Len

New York City Opera is excited to announce its 2018/19 season with innovative productions, including two world premieres. The company will open the season with Astor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires. This will be followed by the world premiere of renowned jazz pianist and composer Ted Rosenthal's Dear Erich. Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci will return to New York for a one night only recital presented by New York City Opera after her triumphant engagement last season at Zankel Hall. City Opera's third annual Pride Series kicks off with Laura Kaminsky's groundbreaking As One and continues all the way through Pride Month with the world premiere of Iain Bell and Mark Campbell's Stonewall.


1. María de Buenos Aires
This production is based on an original concept created as part of The Atlanta Opera Discovery series.

Music by Astor Piazzolla
Libretto by Horacio Ferrar
Conductor: Jorge Parodi
Director: Tomer Zvulun

Astor Piazzolla’s sultry and passionate nuevo tango fuels the surreal story of María, a prostitute born “one day when God was drunk. An intimate production heightens the intensity of this allegorical drama of seduction, depravity, redemption, and rebirth in Buenos Aires’ urban underbelly. The fourth installment in City Opera's Ópera en Español series.


(le) poisson rouge (158 Bleecker Street)

October 22, October 26, and November 2, 2018

2. Dear Erich
*World Premiere*

Music and Libretto by Ted Rosenthal


The discovery of over 200 letters written in Germany between 1938 and 1941 by his grandmother, Herta Rosenthal, to his father, Erich, a Jewish scholar who escaped to the United States, inspired Ted Rosenthal to create Dear Erich. This jazz opera tells the heartbreaking story of a family’s dual fates – a son’s journey and new life in the New World and the cruel demise of his family at the hands of the Nazis which he was powerless to stop.

Performance dates and venue to be announced


3. Anna Caterina Antonacci in Recital

Anna Caterina Antonacci, soprano
Donald Sulzen, piano


New York City Opera will present the return of famed soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci in a program of art songs by women composers. Ms. Antonacci’s appearance last February was widely hailed as a highlight of New York’s cultural season.

The Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center (10 Columbus Circle | 60th and Broadway)

January 28, 2019

4. As One
A co-production with American Opera Projects

Music by Laura Kaminsky
Libretto by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed
Film by Kimberly Reed

A phenomenal success with over 20 productions nationwide since its 2014 premiere, As One has quickly become the most-performed American opera of this century. Composer Laura Kaminsky and librettist Mark Campbell skillfully employ a baritone and a mezzo-soprano to portray the personal journey of Hannah, the opera’s transgender protagonist. New York City Opera joins with American Opera Projects in presenting this innovative and timely work.


Merkin Concert Hall (129 West 67 Street)

May 30, June 1, June 4, June 6, and June 8, 2019


5.Stonewall
*World Premiere*

Music by Iain Bell
Libretto by Mark Campbell
Director: Leonard Foglia


Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the event, Stonewall is a moving and explosive new American opera that captures the rage, grit, humor and, finally, hope of the LGBTQ community’s uprising in a Greenwich Village dance club on one hot night in June 1969. The 85-minute work is divided into three parts and follows a diverse group of characters whose lives collide at that pivotal moment in history when the police push them too far and they find the courage to fight back.

Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center (10 Columbus Circle | 60th & Broadway)

[jbuck919]

I guess niche City Opera is better than no City Opera at all. I don't believe in Karma. I believe in the greatest city in the world having two major opera companies like its main European rivals. But there it is.

[Lance]

Indeed, rather disappointing to me, too. For me, the vocal recital would be the most interesting one to hear/see.

[John F]

This looks back to the time when City Opera's seasons included several contemporary American operas including one premiere. Some of these went on to be recorded and produced by other opera companies. But even then, City Opera balanced its seasons with standard repertoire, "Carmen" and "La Traviata," and modern classics such as "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Cunning Little Vixen." Next season is way out on a limb; the only opera with any name recognition and potential box office appeal is the Piazzolla, and it's being presented in a café with only 250 seats. Looks like a recipe for failure.

[jbuck919]

This looks back to the time when City Opera's seasons included several contemporary American operas including one premiere. Some of these went on to be recorded and produced by other opera companies. But even then, City Opera balanced its seasons with standard repertoire, "Carmen" and "La Traviata," and modern classics such as "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Cunning Little Vixen." Next season is way out on a limb; the only opera with any name recognition and potential box office appeal is the Piazzolla, and it's being presented in a café with only 250 seats. Looks like a recipe for failure.

Look at it this way: Perhaps it will start a tango craze in New York. Worse things have happened.

[lennygoran]

This looks back to the time when City Opera's seasons included several contemporary American operas including one premiere. Some of these went on to be recorded and produced by other opera companies. But even then, City Opera balanced its seasons with standard repertoire, "Carmen" and "La Traviata," and modern classics such as "Der Rosenkavalier" and "Cunning Little Vixen." Next season is way out on a limb; the only opera with any name recognition and potential box office appeal is the Piazzolla, and it's being presented in a café with only 250 seats. Looks like a recipe for failure.

John you hit the nail right on the head-where's the balance as you say-the Piazzola was of some interest to me but why in a cafe instead of at the Rose Center--a venue we really enjoy. Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Look at it this way: Perhaps it will start a tango craze in New York. Worse things have happened.

I don't know about that or this one either--AS ONE"-at least these clips have surtitles! BTW we once caught tango classes going on at the Chelsea Market in Manhattan--can't find the photos I took. Regards, Len

https://vimeo.com/122028096


https://vimeo.com/122028097

[John F]

The Piazzolla and tango craze has come and gone in New York, at least a decade ago. It's a dead horse.

[jbuck919]

Look at it this way: Perhaps it will start a tango craze in New York. Worse things have happened.

I don't know about that or this one either--AS ONE"-at least these clips have surtitles! BTW we once caught tango classes going on at the Chelsea Market in Manhattan--can't find the photos I took. Regards, Len

https://vimeo.com/122028096

You know, Lewis and Clark were one of the most incredible stories of all time. No fiction writer could have made such up. It is as though we put super-space suits on men and sent them to the moon with only that. Far from being bigoted, they stayed in touch with Sacagawea for as long as they lived, and one of them actually took his own life, apparently realizing that after the expedition nothing else could matter any more.


https://vimeo.com/122028097

[Len_Z]

I concur that Antonacci's recital was one of the last season's highlights and would definitely try to attend her return to NY next January. Otherwise, nothing else in the NYCO lineup picks my interest.