New York City Opera Must Raise $20 Million or Cancel its Season

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael Cooper

David Salsbery Fry as Moses in New York City Opera’s production of "Moses in Egypt," at City Center.

NEW YORK---New York City Opera, which was founded 70 years ago to bring opera to the masses, will be forced to cancel most of its current season and all of its next season if it fails to raise $20 million by year’s end, company officials say. “The company’s been living on the edge and hand-to-mouth for a number of years, and we’ve gotten through our own share of financial troubles,” George Steel, the company’s general manager and artistic director, said in a telephone interview last week. “We’ve had balanced budgets for the last two years and we’ve been doing, I think, incredible work onstage. But we can’t forge ahead without a significant infusion of capital.” The company’s $20 million fund-raising goal is nearly twice the $11.5 million it reported raising last year. [link]