Blog Home

We will pay special tribute to Frank Corsaro, who made his directorial debut with us in 1958, and Julius Rudel, who became the General Director of City Opera in 1957, with a short speech from George Steel on stage prior to the performance of Esther this Thursday. Mr. Corsaro and Mr. Rudel are both recipients of the 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors.
Check out these videos about each recipient, including City Opera Dramaturg Cori Ellison's interview about the Julius Rudel era at City Opera.

- "It is all about sleep. That is number one, really and truly," says Daniel Okulitch, who plays Don Giovanni. If you're well rested, he says, you can handle situations that could leave you prone to sickness, like riding the subway or touching props that may have been coughed on...kissing your costars in rehearsal doesn't help, either. His castmates all put being well-rested near the tops of their lists.
- When Gregory Turay, who's singing Don Ottavio, says to "eat right," he has very specific ideas of what it means. Only fruit in the mornings, sushi, veggies, no dairy, starches, sugars, or carbs. "You want to make your body as alkaline as possible," Turay says, "so the viruses don't have an opportunity to thrive." He also recommends tea with lemon, honey and cayenne pepper when you're feeling under the weather.
- "I've used three things to keep me healthy: sleep, Zicam, and chocolate" says Joélle Harvey, who's playing Zerlina. "Definitely chocolate. I don't know about health benefits, but it makes everything feel better."
- Amanda Pabyan, who's covering the role of Donna Anna, has to be the one left standing when everyone gets sick. What's her secret? "Swish with pineapple extract and water when you feel that scratch on your throat. You can also buy it in pill form. The extract is a homeopathic anti-inflammatory and the juice takes the sting away from a sore throat."
We've posted a new episode of this Moment in Opera with special guest Charles Kondek, notable playwright and librettist of Esther. Listen here or subscribe to This Moment in Opera on Itunes to find out:


Last weekend NYCO held its Tenth Annual VOX Showcase, with a wide array of contemporary American works. New York City Opera interns Kristina, Dimitri, and Alex give their take on VOX 2009.
All three of us really liked Ted Hearne’s Katrina Ballads, which expressed the harsh realities surrounding the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. This piece was Kristina’s favorite because of its unique use of lyrics pulled verbatim from the media. The words really speak to the audience because they are from that moment in history and show the political and social tension during the event. One of the highlights of this piece was the vignette entitled “You’re doing a great job Brownie,” in which the vocal styling resembled those of a DJ’s mix.
Dimitri, who’s a huge opera fan, really enjoyed Gordon Beeferman’s The Rat Land. Mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin stole the show as the isolated daughter of a dysfunctional family. Her acting perfectly portrayed the role of a little girl trapped in the midst of an embarrassing birthday party. Singing the role of her autistic brother, Jonathan Makepeace performed an eccentric duet with a Speak-And-Spell toy. Now we see why the VOX programmers revisited the work, which premiered in 2007, and we are all eagerly awaiting a full-length production somewhere in the near future.
Alex loved Car Crash Opera by Michaela Eremiášová and Jairo Duarte-López. It is an eight-minute piece where the music is set to an animated film by Skip Battaglia depicting a car crash. The film wasn’t shown on Saturday, but we could definitely understand how the music would fit. We could easily identify the different characters--from the truck driver, to the impassioned couple, to the mother and child--just by listening to the piece. The singers’ ability to identify with these characters transported the audience into the passenger’s seat.
What did you think?

ESTHER (1993)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
DON GIOVANNI (1787)

With our gripping new production of Don Giovanni by visionary director Christopher Alden, New York City Opera will do what it does best: taking standard repertory and presenting it with a unique perspective.
L'ÉTOILE (1877)

MADAMA BUTTERFLY (1904/1906)

PARTENOPE (1730)

Partenope, a gender-bending comedy of royalty and romantic entanglements, had its acclaimed New York premiere here at New York City Opera in 1998 in this touching and fanciful production by Francisco Negrin.









