New York City Opera Opens Season with Triumphant Production of Anna Nicole, Co-Produced With Bam; Announces Major Fundraising Appeal

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Category: Fine Arts, Dance, Symphony

Published on Monday, 09 September 2013 09:28

New York City Opera will open its season on September 17th with the opera Anna Nicole, by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas. The Opera is a co-production with BAM, and will open both companies’ seasons.

The production is a celebration and a milestone for NYC Opera, which has weathered some extraordinary difficulties, and has emerged remade and ready to move into the future thanks to its unions, artists, donors and audience members.

 “Despite extraordinary difficulties, we have accomplished incredible things in recent years, including producing some of the best art we have ever made,” said George Steel, General Manager and Artistic Director.

The Opera has achieved balanced budgets since its departure from Lincoln Center and has received popular and critical praise for its programming. “The Company is hugely grateful for the support and enthusiasm of our loyal audiences and donors,” said Steel.

“At last, the pieces are in place: we have a well-run, lean, and agile company and wonderful artistic plans; what we need now is the stable funding that will make our work possible,” said Steel.

Building on its many successes over the past few years, New York City Opera will need significant new and stable support if it is to continue forward. “We have reached a crossroads: simply put, we need capitalization, both for the rest of this season and for the Company to continue forward on solid financial footing,” said Steel.

New York City Opera has announced a $20 million fundraising appeal. The Company needs to raise $7 million by the end of this month, which will go toward the current season. The Company, dubbed “The People’s Opera” by Fiorello LaGuardia, is reaching out though a grass-roots campaign to raise $1 million of that $7 million through an online Kickstarter campaign lasting through the month. “We are appealing to donors of every level and in every place,” said Steel.

To learn more about the Kickstarter campaign, click here.

If the Company cannot raise $7 million by the end of September, it will suspend the balance of its 2013-2014 season after the production of Anna Nicole. The remaining productions are Johann Christian Bach’s Endimione, Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. On top of that $7 million, the Company aims to raise an additional $13 million by the end of 2013 towards future seasons.

“Without a significant investment of money, the Company cannot confidently move ahead into the future as it must: stable, growing, and producing the kind of opera for which NYC Opera has become revered around the world,” said Steel. “New York City Opera is a vital part of the City and the Nation’s artistic life. We are hoping donors from all over will rally to carry this glorious cultural treasure forward.”

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