Box Office Opens Today for City Opera's 2010-11 Season

Season Features World Premieres, New York Premieres, New Productions, More than 20 Debut Artists, and an All-New Concert Series at the David H. Koch Theater

25% of All Tickets Available for $25 or Less Making Opera Affordable for New Yorkers

Single tickets for New York City Opera's 2010-2011 season, featuring innovative new operatic works, modern interpretations of traditional repertoire, and a captivating concert series, go on sale today, Tuesday, September 7. Coinciding with the release of single tickets, City Opera is pleased to announce the continuation of offering 25% of all tickets throughout the season for $25 or less.

Turning the spotlight on its own hometown, City Opera's 2010-2011 program will include four major American works that have never before been staged in New York, by notable New York composers-Leonard Bernstein, John Zorn, Morton Feldman and Stephen Schwartz. The season features New York premieres, in new productions, of Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place and Stephen Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon; a daring triple bill of Monodramas (including the US stage premiere of "Neither" by Morton Feldman, and the world stage premiere of John Zorn's "La Machine de l'être", performed with Schoenberg's "Erwartung"); along with the return of Strauss's Intermezzo and Donizetti's The Elixir of Love.

How to Buy: In person at the David H. Koch Theater Box Office (63rd St. & Columbus Ave)

Call CenterCharge at 212.721.6500

Online at nycOpera.com

Subscriptions for New York City Opera's 2010-2011 season can be purchased online at nycOpera.com or by phone at 212.496.0600.

For tickets and more information about the Fall and Spring Galas please call the New York City Opera Special Events Department at 212.870.5622.

Prices: $12 - $140

Subscriptions start at $36 ($12 per ticket)

Where: David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center (63rd St. & Columbus Ave)

When: Weekday performances, with the exception of Tuesdays, begin at 8:00pm. Tuesday performances begin at 7:30pm. Friday and Saturday evening performances begin at 8:00pm; matinees begin at 1:30pm.

ABOUT THE SEASON

Fall Gala
City Opera's Fall Gala, An Evening with Christine Brewer, on Thursday, October 28 stars one of the world's most sought-after sopranos and takes advantage of the increased flexibility of the renovated David H. Koch Theater. The evening includes selections from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Puccini's Turandot and a selection of songs by Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern, with Ms. Brewer joined by the New York City Opera Orchestra and Music Director George Manahan. The concert, which begins at 7pm will be preceded by cocktails at 6pm, and followed by dinner and dancing on the theater's Promenade.

Fall Season
Season performances begin on Wednesday, October 27 at 8pm with a new production of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Wadsworth's A Quiet Place by visionary director Christopher Alden. The final stage work of Leonard Bernstein makes its long-awaited New York premiere, in its first performance on any professional stage in 22 years. Originally written as a sequel to Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti - which perfectly captured the jazzy heartbeat of 20th century America - this emotionally searing musical drama portrays the estranged members of an American family-mother, father, daughter and gay son-as they reunite at a funeral after twenty years.

Intermezzo opens on Sunday, October 31 at 1:30pm. Richard Strauss's lighthearted opera creates domestic comedy out of an incident from the composer's own marriage. While a renowned conductor is away on tour, his hot-headed wife jumps to conclusions after intercepting a misdirected love note that she believes was meant for her husband. In crafting the libretto for this rarely-performed work, Strauss championed a new genre of opera in which everyday events become the subject matter. This fast-paced series of short vignettes with orchestral interludes is presented in a witty production by director Leon Major, which was last seen at City Opera in 1999.

Fall Concerts
New York City Opera will present for the first time an all-new concert series this fall, beginning on Saturday, November 6 at 8pm and Sunday, November 7 at 1:30pm with Lucky to Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein. An all-star lineup of musical theater stars joins cast members of A Quiet Place for this exciting concert evening that celebrates the diversity of Bernstein's work. The program includes music from the Kaddish Symphony, Mass, Songfest, Wonderful Town, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, On the Town, West Side Story, and more.

Inspired by Leonard Bernstein's love of entertaining guests with charismatic performances in his home late into the night, City Opera also presents a special recital, Late Night with LB on Saturday, October 23 at 10pm, featuring Bernstein's most personal music in the intimate cabaret setting of the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse. Tickets: $45.

Spring Gala
City Opera celebrates its Spring Gala on Thursday, April 21 with Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz, a salute to the composer of Séance on a Wet Afternoon with a program of songs from his acclaimed Broadway and film works, including Wicked, Godspell, Pippin and Enchanted. The concert which begins at 8pm will be preceded by cocktails at 7pm and followed by dinner and dancing on the theater's promenade.

Spring Season
The spring season opens on Tuesday, March 22 at 7:30pm with a revival of Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. Donizetti's beloved classic is reimagined with American swagger in Jonathan Miller's inventive production, which moves the action to the 1950s southwest to tell the tale of a shy young man who buys a love potion from a traveling salesman in an effort to cure his broken heart.

Friday, March 25 at 8pm opens a triple bill of cutting-edge one-acts for sopranos called Monodramas: Arnold Schoenberg's "Erwartung" (Expectation), Morton Feldman's "Neither" (with a libretto by Samuel Beckett) and John Zorn's "La Machine de l'être", that showcases the work of vital innovators of modern music and celebrated collaborators from the worlds of visual and performance art, epitomizing City Opera's mission to present new and progressive repertoire. Monodramas will be directed and designed by Michael Counts.

Carrying the pioneering spirit of Arnold Schoenberg and Morton Feldman into the present day, prolific New York composer John Zorn takes the soprano on a bravura collision course of elemental sound in "La Machine de l'être," featuring soprano Anu Komsi. Inspired by drawings of the seminal theater artist Antonin Artaud, this dynamic piece was first heard in 2007 at City Opera's VOX and now receives its world stage premiere.

In Schoenberg's "Erwartung", a terrified woman gropes through a dark forest searching for her lover, only to find that darkness dwells within her. Written in Vienna in 1909 and premiered in 1924, this quintessential Modernist piece now enjoys its New York City Opera premiere starring soprano Kara Shay Thomson. It has been linked to Freud's study of the famous hysteric Anna O., who was said to be a relative of the librettist. The work of celebrated video artist Jennifer Steinkamp, who breathes new life into tree-like forms, is paired with the fragmented text and spiky musical language of the score to serve as a poetic exploration of perception and the subconscious.

A 1976 meeting between American composer Morton Feldman and playwright Samuel Beckett yielded "Neither", a stream-of-consciousness creation which investigates altered states of mind and awareness. The fearless Cyndia Sieden tackles Feldman's haunting, glacial composition, which challenges the highest extremes of the soprano range. Receiving its first staging in the U.S., the production features an installation inspired by laser art pioneer Hiro Yamagata's NGC6093, which incorporates other-worldly holograms and lasers to evoke hypnotic visions and create an unsettling sense of time and place.

On Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 pm, City Opera presents the New York premiere of Séance on a Wet Afternoon, the first opera by Oscar and Grammy-winning composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Based on the novel by Mark McShane and its 1964 film noir adaptation, the opera focuses on Myra Foster, a trance medium who involves her passive husband in a plot to kidnap the daughter of a neighboring family. Myra intends to find the girl through psychic communication with her own dead son, and so gain the fame she craves-but the plot goes awry, as her fragile sanity begins to break down. Excerpts from Séance on a Wet Afternoon were presented at City Opera's VOX showcase in 2009. The opera had its world premiere in September 2009, at Opera Santa Barbara in California.

Spring Concert
City Opera's new concert series continues through the spring beginning on Wednesday, March 30 at 8pm
with The Musical Worlds of John Zorn. The music maverick's diverse musical groups perform works from his innovative repertoire in an evening featuring the hypnotic minimalist propulsion of The Goddess, dynamic Jewish jazz courtesy of The Masada Sextet, the intensity of modern rock with the New York Premiere of Moonchild, and a mind-bending collaboration with avant-garde innovators Euphoria.

Family Matinee
On Saturday, April 9, 2011, at 1:30 pm a special matinee concert and benefit, features the fantastical opera Where the Wild Things Are based on the beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak. Composed by Oliver Knussen to a libretto by Sendak himself, this enchanting work (last performed at City Opera in 1987) tells the tale of Max, a little boy with a wild imagination. City Opera is proud to affirm its mission of nurturing young American singers by presenting the talented Vocal Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center in this performance.

Lectures & Panel Discussions
This season, New York City Opera also presents fascinating pre-performance lecture series, including Intro to Opera, Opera Insights, Listening Room and Artist Dialogues, aimed at demystifying the art form, giving specific guidance on each opera in the season, offering an audio introduction to the works and providing access to the artists who have created the production. Lectures will be held at the Peter Glenville Theatre at 132 West 60th Street, and Listening Room will be held in the Green Room of the David H. Koch Theater. Tickets are $10 ($5 for subscribers).

On Sunday, April 10 at 7:30pm, a panel of distinguished composers and playwrights including Adam Guettel and John Kander, join Stephen Schwartz on the stage of the Gershwin Theatre (222 West 51st Street), for an in-depth look at what defines the opera and musical theater genres. The roundtable discussion takes place on the set of Schwartz's hit Broadway show Wicked. Tickets: $25.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Fall 2010

A Quiet Place
Wednesday, October 27 at 8pm
Saturday, October 30 at 8pm
Thursday, November 4 at 8pm
Saturday, November 6 at 1:30pm
Friday, November 12 at 8pm
Sunday, November 14 at 1:30pm
Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30pm
Sunday, November 21 at 1:30pm

Intermezzo
Sunday, October 31 at 1:30pm
Friday, November 5 at 8pm
Tuesday, November 9 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 13 at 8pm
Thursday, November 18 at 8pm
Saturday, November 20 at 1:30pm

Late Night with LB
Saturday, October 23 at 10pm
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

An Evening with Christine Brewer
Thursday, October 28 at 7pm

Lucky to Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein
Saturday, November 6 at 8pm
Sunday, November 7 at 1:30pm

Spring 2011

Elixir of Love
Tuesday, March 22 at 7:30pm
Thursday, March 24 at 8pm
Saturday, March 26 at 1:30pm
Friday, April 1 at 8pm
Sunday, April 3 at 1:30pm
Tuesday, April 5 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 9 at 8pm

Monodramas ("La Machine de l'être",
"Erwartung", and "Neither")
Friday, March 25 at 8pm
Sunday, March 27 at 1:30pm
Tuesday, March 29 at 7:30pm
Thursday, March 31 at 8pm
Sunday, April 2 at 1:30pm
Friday, April 8 at 8pm

Séance on a Wet Afternoon
Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, April 20 at 8pm
Friday, April 22 at 8pm
Saturday, April 23 at 1:30pm
Sunday, April 24 at 1:30pm
Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30pm
Thursday, April 28 at 8pm
Friday, April 29 at 8pm
Saturday, April 30 at 8pm
Sunday, May 1 at 1:30pm

The Musical Worlds of John Zorn
Wednesday, March 30 at 8pm

Family Opera in Concert:
Where the Wild Things Are
Saturday, April 9, at 1:30 pm

Opera or Musical Theater?
A Roundtable with Stephen Schwartz
Sunday, April 10 at 7:30
Gershwin Theatre

Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz
Thursday, April 21 at 8pm

 

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