The Playgoer: The Theatre and the Opera Can be Friends

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Theatre and the Opera Can be Friends

"Fiorello La Guardia called the New York City Opera 'The People's Opera.' The People's Opera and The Public Theater make sense together. Free Shakespeare in the Park is one of our great civic traditions, and to combine Shakespeare, with opera, outdoors, in the center of the greatest city in the world, for free, will make a beautiful sound."

- Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis, announcing a joint venture to present Shakespeare-based operas in the Public's Central Park DelacorteTheatre beginning Fall 2012.

Nice example of making opportunity out of crisis--in this case NYC Opera's departure from Lincoln Center and subsequent homelessness.

3 comments:

Scott Walters said...

Also a nice example of the usual NYC parochialism.

David Cote said...

Scott: Wha?!? First of all, do you expect NYCO to decamp for North Carolina? Folks who work for the company live here and want to continue to live here.

Second, how the org responded to the crisis is actually the opposite of parochial, as they will be presenting shows in various venues around the city, thus getting opera into different neighborhoods. Sure the high ticket prices will still be prohibitive, but at least they will be moving around the boroughs a bit.

Life Imitates Art said...

Reminds me of the Yes, Prime Minister clip you posted a while ago, Garrett. "A Patron of the Arts" episode, wherein the PM tries to head off protest over funding cuts by selling their building and making the National Theatre "truly national" by having them rent space across the country to perform.