NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Constantine Orbelian was promoted Tuesday to executive director of the largely dormant New York City Opera, which hasn鈥檛 given a staged performance since 2022 and says it will return with William Grant Still鈥檚 鈥淭roubled Island鈥� at City Center in 2025-26.
Orbelian, 68, became music director for the 2021-22 season and added the title of executive director one day after Michael Capasso鈥檚 retirement as general director was announced by board chairman emeritus Roy G. Niederhoffer.
鈥淚鈥檓 a person who likes to try to resurrect things. I have a kind of a pretty good track record of doing that,鈥� Orbelian said.
City Opera has been limited to occasional recitals and parks performances since 2022, when it gave the world premiere of at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and performances of Peter Rothstein鈥檚 鈥淎ll Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914鈥� at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, sa国际传媒icut.
Its tax return for the year ending in June 2023 showed assets of $977,303 and liabilities of $2,055,101. Contributions and grants declined to $599,634 from $1.22 million in 2021-22 and ticket revenue was $237,547.
鈥淭here needs to be, of course, a minimal amount of money to be able to function," Orbelian said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to jump into huge deficits or anything like that,.鈥�
and presented more than 100 in some seasons, first at City Center and then at Lincoln Center鈥檚 New York State Theater starting in 1966. It gave exposure to Beverly Sills, Pl谩cido Domingo and Ren茅e Fleming early in their careers.
Its fortunes began to decline when it skipped its regular 2008-09 season to allow renovations at the State Theater, then appointed George Steele as general director in 2009. , and presented several productions per season through 2018-19, then 鈥� cut to one because of the pandemic. Its endowment shrunk from $48 million in 2008 to $5.1 million in 2012 to $1.4 million in 2022, according to tax returns.
Capasso said the decision to leave was made by him and not the board. His plan in 2016 had been to eventually reach 75 performances per season.
鈥淚t was hard. And it鈥檚 going to be more difficult even now,鈥� he said. 鈥淚'll direct something in Europe where I don鈥檛 have to worry about paying for it, somebody else鈥檚 paying for it or the government's paying for it."
Orbelian was music director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra from 1991-2010, and general and artistic director of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Yerevan, Armenia, from 2016-21. He has been principal conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra since 2014.
He said he increased the Moscow Chamber Orchestra鈥檚 schedule to 150 concerts per year outside of Russia.
'I kind of resurrected the Armenian opera house by bringing in 14 new productions in three years when they had four productions in the previous 18 years,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 love a challenge.鈥�
鈥淭roubled Island,鈥� with a libretto by Langston Hughes and Verna Arvey, was given its world premiere by City Opera on March 31, 1949, and was the first opera by a Black composer produced by a major U.S. company. The work focuses on Jean Jacques Dessalines and a Haitian revolution.
City Opera plans a Carnegie Hall concert this season of works by Mieczys艂aw Weinberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Orbelian said future plans include Pietro Mascagni's 鈥淚sabeau,鈥� a co-production with Opera Holland Park that was presented in London in 2018.
鈥淭omorrow we鈥檙e not going to be building new sets," Orbelian said, 鈥渂ut we do have 15 productions that we actually own that are in the warehouse, and a number of them have not been done yet here in New York.鈥�
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
