Can New York City Opera Retain Its Name Under New Plans?

Steel becoming molten lava.
(Photo: Sara Krulwich/NY Times)

"Mr. Steel has put creative thought into choosing five works for City Opera’s nomadic 2011-12 season. Of special note is a production of Telemann’s Orpheus in an intimate space ideal for Baroque opera, the theater at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem. If some other performing arts entity in New York had announced this project, grateful opera buffs would be saluting it. But Mr. Steel’s road show of a season represents a radical rethinking of the company’s mission. The most anguished members of the City Opera family — the orchestra players and choristers, the distinguished artists who signed the letter protesting the company’s decision to leave Lincoln Center and who have counted on the company for years — complain that Mr. Steel’s plans are such a departure from what the company has been for the past 68 years that he can no longer call the company New York City Opera. And they have a point." [Source]