Union files complaint to stop the move of the Opera of NYC (AP)

NEW YORK - a Union filed a Federal complaint against the troubled New York City Opera, saying that the plans of the company out of Lincoln Center after 45 years compromises the rights of the work of singers, dancers and stage crew members who work for the company.

The American Guild of Musical Artists says the move of the Opera in a smaller place and a shorter schedule means less work for the members of the Union, which are usually guaranteed a certain number of work weeks per year. He filed a complaint Thursday with the National Labor Relations Board, saying that Opera should negotiate with the union movement.

"They have a legal obligation to negotiate and give us all their information," said Gordon. "They are not to decide, 'I'm going in business elsewhere, find me, if you can.'". ?

The union represents approximately 200 workers at the Opera, including approximately 50 singers and 10 production workers.

The complaint of the Union, said that the expected move will have the effect of "repressed the union and its members in the exercise of their rights."

A spokesman for the company, Maggie McKeon, said Thursday that the deposit was without foundation. Last week, the Chief Executive George Steel said that Opera simply cannot afford to operate at the Lincoln Center of anymore.

City Opera has a reputation for bold new Assembly productions and cultivating hot talent such as Placido Domingo, Renée Fleming, and Beverly Sills. But the company had difficulty in recent years.

Its staffing has decreased by 55 million to $ 9 million, obtained by The Associated Press show audits, and it has a projected deficit of $ 5 million this year.

He announced last week he moved to Lincoln Center, the complex landmark of concert halls, which is also home to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, the Juilliard School of Music and other organizations.

The company also said that it will do only three operas on a large scale the next season instead of five.

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Online:

http://www.nycopera.com/

Zambello advises National Opera as Domingo departs

 The Washington National Opera has named Francesca Zambello as artistic advisor of the company as the famous tenor Placido Domingo steps down after 15 years with the Opera.

The appointment announced Wednesday comes as the company merges with the Kennedy Center to ensure stability after years of financial difficulties. Zambello has already worked with Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser at the London Royal Opera House.

"I think opera has the chance to attract people to us not always think to, honestly," she said in an interview. "I am all about the creation of productions that are accessible to the public, who are entertaining, which are tales."

Zambello is a Director in Opera and musical theatre. She currently leads a new production of Wagner's "Ring" cycle for San Francisco Opera. Production began with Washington National Opera, but he was unable to complete all four episodes due to financial difficulties.

Kaiser and Zambello agreed that they would like to stage a full cycle of "Ring" in Washington after the Opera spent lot of time and money in development as the "American Ring" in 2006, based on the themes and the history of the United States settings to explore the epic of greed Wagnerambition and betrayal.

After productions "Ring" in June, Zambello withdraw as artistic advisor of the San Francisco Opera to concentrate its efforts on Washington and as Director of Glimmerglass Opera, a festival of summer in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The New York-based Director will be part of a team who will lead the programming of the Opera as it transitions Domingo, who joined the company as Artistic Director in 1996. Early in his career, Zambello worked under the direction of end Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.

Kaiser said Zambello woman leader among the administrators of the Opera. He refused to specify the duration of his contract in Washington, but said that it will have a permanent role. Appoint a fact artistic advisor sense, while the company is in transition, said Kaiser.

"It was a lot of vision in the Opera, and we believe that it will bring some really good ideas for programs, casting ideas, ideas for the productions to be used," said.

Zambello has also recently performed "The Little Mermaid for Broadway" as an adaptation of the Disney film scene. Closed in 2009 before a national tour.

She said that it wants to expand the programming of the Opera to achieve the widest possible public, including tourists visiting cultural attractions of Washington. She is also eager to operas beyond the great Kennedy Center Opera House with productions in smaller rooms as well.

55 Washington Opera has always been "revered" as Martin Feinstein and Domingo, Zambello said, adding that she looks forward to ongoing collaboration with Domingo.

A large part of the resources of the Opera are used to repay its debts before it merges with the Kennedy Center on July 1. 2009 Tax records show the company has a debt of $ 11.6 million, with an endowment of $ 30.6 million. The balanced budget was reached in recent years after cuts in programming and staff.

Also Wednesday, Council named Opera Michael Mael as Executive Director of the group to conduct its affairs. Previously, he was Chief of operations of the Opera.

Other operas have struggled through the recession. The New York City Opera has just announced that he leaves his house for a long time at the Lincoln Center to reduce costs. Baltimore Opera has closed its doors in 2009.

Change can help boost a theatre, said Zambello.

"I think this new arrangement will really, really help society," she said, "by making everything more explode in the cultural scene of the city." "".

NYC Opera Union calls a unfair labor practice charge (AP)

NEW YORK - a Union representing workers at the Opera in the city of New York said financial difficulty that he will file charges of unfair labour practices after the Commission voted to leave the Lincoln Center and staff cut.

Executive Director national Alan Gordon, said Saturday that the American Guild of Musical Artists will also obtain an injunction restraining the production company to continue to use the name of New York City Opera.

On Friday, the Board voted to leave Lincoln Center, cut staff of the Commission and to scale back its schedule of performance. The Director General of the Opera, George Steel, says the changes are necessary to maintain the Opera afloat and build "a foundation for sustainable growth."

The Organization of 68 is revered as a pillar of American culture. But in recent years, there has been evil with a decrease in staffing and a deficit of several million dollars.

NYC troubled Opera Board meets to discuss future

NEW YORK - The New York City Opera, a pillar of American culture that for decades has built daring new productions along with the careers of stars like Placido Domingo, Renee Fleming and Beverly Sills, is fighting for its life.

Members of the company's board met Thursday at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to consider the opera's future, and spokeswoman Maggie McKeon said Thursday evening that deliberations were continuing.

No announcements were expected before Friday.

Singers and production staff locked in a tussle over a new contract are threatening to "strike and drive City Opera out of existence," a union leader warned in an e-mail Wednesday to The Associated Press.

But in a letter to the board this week, union members expressed a willingness to make additional sacrifices, said Alan Gordon, executive director of The American Guild of Musical Artists, representing singers, dancers, stage directors and managers.

The company's endowment has dwindled from $55 million to $9 million, according to audit obtained by the AP And City Opera has put off announcing its 2011-2012 season as it faces a projected deficit of $5 million.

The board chairman last month personally contributed an emergency $2.5 million toward plugging the deficit, company officials said.

Another current board member, Susan Baker, resigned as chairwoman in September after being blamed in the media for decisions that have left opera company on the financial brink. She was succeeded by Charles r. Wall, a former tobacco company attorney who contributed the $2.5 million.

Company officials declined to say how much money they have left, how gold is Gordon's statements.

The board is conducting an exhaustive financial review, with Wall saying that future programming won't be scheduled until the budget is balanced.

In the past three years, one season was totally eliminated and two cut down drastically.

City Opera's contracts with AGMA and Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, representing the orchestra, expired on April 29. The two sides are now involved in what Gordon called "very truncated negotiations."

He said that under an old contract, chorus singers were guaranteed 26 weeks of work each year. Now, with possible cuts in salary, working hours and medical coverage looming, they "will have to decide whether to bargain over reduced employment but, instead, strike and drive City Opera out of existence."

Chorus members earned an average of about $36,000 a year, "and every NYCO chorister has to maintain a second job in order to survive," the union boss said.

In the letter to the board, singers and production staff said they were willing "to find new and creative ways to work with smaller budgets and fewer resources than we ever have in the past." But they faulted the company for cutting back on such classic and traditional works as "Carmen" and "La boheme" that are in their repertoire.

In its latest tax return, for the year ending June 2010, the company posted a $4.7 million operating deficit, with net assets tumbling to about $9.7 million from $58 million in 2007.

City Opera shares space at the David h. Koch Theater with the New York City Ballet as two of the dozen artistic constituents of Lincoln Center, the world's largest arts complex. Next door is the Metropolitan Opera, a grander company established in 1883 and known for its international superstar cast and big-budget productions.

By contrast, City Opera was founded in 1943. Then-Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called it "The People's Opera" - a jewel in the city's cultural crown that championed American singers who once went to Europe to establish themselves and has always offered more affordable tickets than the puts.

This spring, the company again demonstrated its pioneering spirit_ staging its annual Vox festival of contemporary American works at a Manhattan university and a chichi downtown club.

Vox follows a season that included a warhorse of the vocal repertoire, Donizetti's "Elisir of Amore", as well as a family-friendly production called "where the wild things Are," composed by Oliver Knussen and based on a beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak.

Although this season was critically international, ticket sales sagged.

Further highlighting the financial woes facing arts organizations, the venerable Philadelphia Orchestra last month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, making it the first major U.S. orchestra to do so.

Management for the orchestra, among the world's most renowned symphonies and the set behind the soundtrack to Walt Disney's 1940 film "Fantasia," said it was facing a $14.5 million shortfall was $46 million budget and would run out of cash by June.

The City Opera has been on a roller-coaster ride for several years, facing financial and artistic turmoil that threatened to close it down last season. But the shows went on - albeit only about 30 performances this season and last, compared with the more than 100 presentations in previous years.

Like most nonprofit cultural institutions, City Opera depends on the financial backing of wealthy patterns.

The economic crisis that started in 2008 has forced many benefactors to scale back on their donations. But the economy cannot be blamed for everything - especially when companies of about the same size stay solvent, like the Chicago Lyric Opera.

City Opera's latest unrest began in 2007, with the appointment of Belgian director Gerard Mortier as general manager and artistic director, effective as of the 2009-2010 season.

Baker, a former Goldman Sachs executive, headed the board since 2003 around the time deficits started hounding City Opera.

The market crash was a catastrophic last straw. Baker looked for an innovative - purpose ultimately never - way to counterbalance it, hiring the high - profile, avant-garde mortar to replace the outgoing general manager, Paul Kellogg.

Mortar was used to staging expensive, cutting-edge extravaganzas in Europe, where he ran the Salzburg Festival from 1990-2001 and the Paris Opera from 2004-2009. He insisted that City Opera's theater be renovated, forcing the company to go dark for the 2008-2009 season, with only six unstaged performances elsewhere.

Total revenue dropped to $17 million in 2009, compared with $37 million the previous year, the audits show. And income from ticket sales plunged to about $186,000, down from $12 million.

To cover operating deficits, the company raided its endowment for about $24 million - an action that had to be approved by the New York attorney general's office, which oversees nonprofits. In 2003, the endowment was $55 million, according to the company audits.

Baker did not respond to repeated requests for how from the AP.

Mortar held his position less than a year, working mostly from Paris; in between, the company covered his pricey first-class flights to New York, records show. He finally resigned on the grounds that the $60 million operating budget he expected had dwindled to $26 million, as registered in a tax 2009 audit.

He was replaced by George Steel, an impresario and conductor from the Dallas Opera.

Academy of Hong Kong to provide the degree of Opera Cantonese

HONG KONG - the Hong Kong performing arts school will offer a degree of Cantonese Opera in the latest effort to preserve the traditional art form designated as a heritage cultural key.

The Academy of Arts of the scene, said that its program will combine theory and practice to prepare students for careers of Opera Cantonese as of the performers, educators or administrators of arts.

Four year degree program is the first of its kind for the art form sung in the Chinese dialect of the South.

The degree would be offered from September 2013, the school said in a statement Monday. According to the request, the Academy may add of graduate degrees.

Interpreter of Opera Cantonese Yuen Siu - fai commended the program, saying that the boat was suffering from a lack of seriousness of talent. While veterans like him have moved their energies of grooming new talent performance, a few skilled artists are in their 20s or 30s.

"My first reaction is that this is a very good thing." It is something of that really, I hope, Yuen told Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that the success of the program depends on the quality of its teachers and curriculum.

Group of performers of Cantonese Opera which Yuen helps manage, the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong, has a school of continuing education for working professionals. Also, the association organises courses in high school and hopes to expand to a second.

Performance sites were also of concern. The lease of theatre on the leader of Hong Kong, the Sunbeam Theatre Cantonese Opera, is due to exhausted in February 2012, although the Hong Kong Government promised performance space in the Western Kowloon projected $ 2.8 billion cultural hub designed by British architect Norman Foster.

Yuen said, however, the solution is not physical, but rather the lack of general respect for the performing arts. He said that he often loses young promising parents who compel them to concentrate on their academic studies in their high school years as they prepare for the admission of the University.

The Hong Kong Government said in a statement, that he is committed to maintaining the interest of the public to the Cantonese Opera. Home Affairs Ministry said it provides spending 30 million Hong Kong dollars ($3.9 million) this fiscal year on the performances, training and research Cantonese Opera.

A separate Opera Cantonese Development Fund has awarded HK 37 million ($4.8 million) since its creation in 2005.

The Ministry of Home Affairs intends to finance Academy of the Performing Arts courses this year but did not say if she would support the program of studies.

Cantonese Opera has been added to the list of heritage cultural key U.N. educational, scientific and Cultural Organization in 2009.