City Opera update

ArtsJournal had a link today to an AP story, which ran in USA Today. So my item on the company’s startling plan was right on target — the company really might cancel is 2008-09 season. City Opera’s board chairman Susan Baker spins the thing very smoothly, making it sound like the most natural thing in the world, as if singers’ managers (if we believe what Parterre Box reported) weren’t being stonewalled when they ask about their artists’ contracts for next year.

Not that USA Today seems to have asked about that, though Parterre Box (which they mention) was apparently the impetus for their story.

Baker says that City Opera might look at performances outside Lincoln Center, if the season there is canceled:

“At the moment, our thinking is that if we have to be dark in the State Theater for part of the ’08-09 performance season, what we would do is have some non-traditional season in other venues,” she said.

Baker said the company could perform in churches and various auditoriums around New York. She said the focus could be a lookahead to Mortier’s first season, which will stress 20th century works.