welcome back. it has been a lonely year without the annual handel operas. When it is time for a Monteverdi cycle? pt

I am impressed that you are doing a Chabrier opera. I also believe the program you've put forth for educating youngsters and others about the opera is most worthwhile. Such programs invite people not that well acquainted with opera to give it a try.

There is a great deal to say about Lincoln Center from the days when the City Opera upstaged the Met whenever Norman Treigle performed, I dare say anything, even though I only saw him in Boito’s MEFISTOFELE, Gounod’s FAUST, Floyd’s SUSANNAH, Mozert’s FIGARO, and his last performance in Offenbach’s TALES OF HOFFMAN that I sensed would be the last time I saw him on stage, and it was unfortunately enough. I have lost count of the millions of dollars spent rebuilding the State/Koch Theatre and never had a problem hearing Carol Neblett, Sills, Doming, Carreras etc there. The City Opera has also done horrendous productions of Busoni’s DOKTOR FAUST, PLATEE, so therre are successes and failures to go all around. After the desecrations imposed on Prokofieff's LOVE FOR 3 ORANGES, I have to remember many of the Janacek triumphs from VIXEN, to HOUSE OF THE DEAD, and the Achim Freyer version of Moses und Aaron. But there are rows of empty seats most nights @ Lincoln Center. Let's lower some prices and raise the highest to accomodate a new audien cew before we lose another generation of opera enthisiasts...

There is a great deal to say about Lincoln Center from the days when the City Opera upstaged the Met whenever Norman Treigle performed, I dare say anything, even though I only saw him in Boito’s MEFISTOFELE, Gounod’s FAUST, Floyd’s SUSANNAH, Mozert’s FIGARO, and his last performance in Offenbach’s TALES OF HOFFMAN that I sensed would be the last time I saw him on stage, and it was unfortunately enough. And the City Opera as well w/horendous productions of Busoni’s DOKTOR FAUST, PLATEE, so therre are successes and failures to go all around.

Gentlemen, I remember NYCO's early seasons when I was still in jr. high-school in the 40's...a ticket was affordable even for a child (I saved pennies and managed the tarriff pretty well) and the repertoire was solid, lots of Verdi (I remember a terrific Nabucco - Puccini (the first Turandot in NY since the 20s) two or three new works every season, American opera with guts and power, top rank singers (starting with Kirsten, Mascherini, Conley, Gismondo, Poleri a little later, Verrett, Milnes, Carreras,.Domingo and so on. Nothing like that now. The repetoire is precious and uninteresting, there is no "real opera" (Joseph Kerman had it definied the right way - "Opera is love, sex and death" How about some solid Mascagni, Puccini's "Edgar" (4 act version, please),some infrequently performed but first rate Giordano (like La Cena delle Beffe) some Shrecker perhaps, and some of the Soviet Period Russians who are all but ignored today. Enough of "gender-bending" Handel which wasn't written that way at all...get rid of directors who think that the operas they direct are all about them rather than the composers and the librettists...and most of all, get the ticket prices down to where one can afford them and the quality of the singing up. I'd love to come back to the fold after all these years....but the NYCO is no longer the "people's opera" that it was created to be. More new works, solid, mainstream, full of melody and dramatic power. And always remember, it is the singing, the voices, that are the most important element, not the directors, not the sets, not the costumes and not the campy visual jokes. Maybe your new Director will sort things out. I certainly hope so. New York needs a second top-rank company desperately,

Glad to see the return of the Handel operas. No one does them better. I was dismayed by the previous plan to present only 20th century works and had not planned on attending. I have changed my mind now that I see the list of offerings. Will attend 2 or 3.