One will be “a warhorse,” he said, a crowd-pleasing mainstay of the repertoire like Tosca, another will be an American opera “tied directly to City Opera and its heritage,” and one will be a work with a Spanish-language text. Capasso immediately enlisted former NYCO board member Roy Niederhoffer, his longtime friend, in a campaign to convince the musicians, creditors and bankruptcy court that they were the best team to bring it back from the dead.Eventually he hopes to work up to 75 performances a season — still a far cry from the 160 or so the old company gave at its peak.5 million. “My five-year plan will reinvigorate the repertory, bring it back to the glory days,” he said.Michael Capasso, who will lead the reborn New York City Opera, examines drawings used for sets and costumes at the 1900 premiere of Puccini’s Tosca in Rome.”. The budget for that season is projected to be $6.“We’re not going to expand beyond what we can afford,” Capasso said.But the man behind the venture, Michael Capasso, is very much focused on the future.— APWhen the curtain rises on Tosca at the Rose Theatre it may look like a double-dip into the past: a tribute to the launch of the New York City Opera more than 70 years ago, using sets recreated from the dawn of the 20th century.Capasso sounds optimistic about their chances. “But what I have seen and what I hear leaves me with more questions than answers.Then for 2016-17, he promises six productions, some but not all performed at the Rose Theatre.“Are we correct or merely nostalgic in hearkening back to a ‘Tosca’ of 1944 ” he said.”
After Tosca, he plans to announce three more productions for the coming months, including a piece that composer David Hertzberg wrote on a commission from Gotham Chamber Opera, another company that recently shut down because of financial problems.“It would be wonderful if New York City could support another sizable company,” Scorca said.”One of those questions is whether it was smart to launch with Tosca, an opera the Met just performed 13 times this season, and which the Brooklyn-based LoftOpera plans to stage six times in March.Ever since City Opera shut down more than two years ago, he’s been working to bring it back to life.But a series of financial missteps led the company to declare bankruptcy in 2013. It’s a setting of Wallace Stevens’ poem Sunday Morning for soprano, string nonet and harp. Scorca, president and CEO of Opera America, the national umbrella organization for the industry, said he worries about the viability of a company trying to occupy a niche between the Met, with its annual budget exceeding $300 million, and the more than 40 tiny groups that offer operas throughout the five boroughs. “Will people be inspired by this one production to subscribe, to contribute ” Capasso knows much is riding on how the initial production is received, and he welcomes the scrutiny from critics and public. “We’re under a microscope,” he said.
