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Aunque tangencialmente somos "noticia" en el NY Times.
Resumiendo: Comentan la búsqueda de un sustituto para Mortier en el NY City y señalan que el TR ha demostrado su interés (nada nuevo bajo el sol).
Saludos,
M
Turnaround Specialist Talks of City Opera Plans
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
20 de noviembre de 2008
The New York Times
Even before the full board of New York City Opera learned that its proposed savior, Gerard Mortier, was saying goodbye, its chairwoman had turned to a man known in the arts as a turnaround specialist: Michael M. Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
The move by the chairwoman, Susan L. Baker, reflected the sense of crisis at the opera, which just a year and a half ago had plunged into a radical transformation based on Mr. Mortier's vision, including a large-scale renovation of its theater.
Mr. Kaiser said his role was ''really simple.''
''I've been asked by Susan and the board of the opera to help them write a plan for going forward,'' he said. ''It's very specific.'' He said he was not being paid and was not a candidate for the job. ''If they asked me, I'd say no.''
Mr. Mortier's departure as general director-designate was confirmed after a meeting of the board's executive committee on Nov. 4, a Tuesday, Ms. Baker said. Mr. Kaiser said he received a call from her on Wednesday or Thursday. Mr. Mortier's departure became public that Friday, when the full board was told.
When asked what he would recommend for City Opera, Mr. Kaiser said it would be to create a budget ''they can afford to live with.'' Mr. Mortier agreed to come with the understanding that the budget would be $60 million, up from a deficit-ridden $42 million. When the board proposed only about $36 million because of the economic downturn, Mr. Mortier said he could not work there.
Mr. Kaiser next said it was important for the company ''to attract an artistic leader who's going to be able to play on their strength and create interesting and important programming.'' Ms. Baker said she hoped to have a successor to Mr. Mortier in place by the end of the year.
Mr. Kaiser recently published ''The Art of the Turnaround'' (Brandeis University Press), a chronicle of his efforts to help once-troubled organizations like Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater and the Royal Opera House in London.
When asked to judge what went wrong at City Opera, he blamed a ''confluence of events,'' including the economy. But he also faulted the board for not doing enough financial analysis. No. 9 of his book's rules for a turnaround is, ''The board must allow itself to be restructured.''
''I think that there wasn't a realistic discussion about whether this $60 million budget was affordable,'' he said. ''There was a great deal of optimism that Mr. Mortier's programming would be so enticing that they would be able to build their fund-raising very fast.''
Mr. Mortier, who turns 65 on Tuesday and is known for his provocative contemporary approach to opera, put together a slate of challenging 20th-century works for next season, omitting operas like ''Carmen'' and ''La Boheme'' that appeal to the more traditional-minded wealthy donors. He also wanted to take performances to other places around New York and establish a ''stagione'' season, in which productions play in sequence, one after another, instead of in repertory. Others in the opera world have questioned the performance of City Opera's board in establishing what in hindsight seems like a mismatch.
The Belgian-born Mr. Mortier, who is in his final year running the Paris National Opera and who made his career in Europe, was used to large government subsidies and had little experience at opera houses where private money has to be cultivated. Doubts intensified when Mr. Mortier made a bid in August to become co-director of the Bayreuth Festival in Germany and rumors circulated in the opera world that he was looking elsewhere. This week a spokeswoman for the Teatro Real in Madrid said Mr. Mortier was a possible candidate for its artistic director.
''My personal feeling was he wasn't going to end up coming anyway,'' said Kevin Smith, president of the Minnesota Opera, who has collaborated with City Opera. ''I didn't see the match making sense.'' He said the transformation sought by Mr. Mortier was a stretch, and that the board bore some responsibility for the tough spot in which City Opera finds itself.
''There's a lot of reflection that needs to happen from a governance point of view,'' he said of the board. ''It certainly raises a lot of questions in terms of how the board was functioning.''
Jurgen Flimm, a successor to Mr. Mortier as artistic director of the Salzburg Festival in Austria, said City Opera was ''exactly the wrong theater for him.''
''The mistake is that Gerard wanted to blow it up into a major company,'' Mr. Flimm added, ''but there is not money to do that.''
Ms. Baker, in a telephone interview Wednesday, strongly defended the choice of Mr. Mortier -- which she championed but which she also said was unanimous within the search committee -- and the promise of a bigger budget for the company.
''I continue to think that the board made a very intelligent choice in settling on Mortier in the last search, believing his work would galvanize fund-raising and ticket sales,'' she said. ''His work is must-see in today's marketplace. It was an intelligent way to go. In those markets, it made good sense.''
Ms. Baker, who has been chairwoman since 2004, said that despite Mr. Kaiser's precept on board renewal, the current turmoil argued against bringing in new board members. As for her future, she said, ''I'm working very hard right now with the rest of the board to create a terrific next chapter for City Opera.'' In the future, ''if it makes sense for somebody else to take a leadership position, I'm certainly ready for that to happen,'' she said.
One board member, Emilie Roy Corey, who was on the search committee that approved Mr. Mortier's appointment in early 2007, said the panel was going back to other candidates considered along with Mr. Mortier.
''We're trying the best we can to get the situation back on track,'' she said, but she acknowledged that the unthinkable -- City Opera's demise -- was looming in the background. ''I guess it's crossed a lot of our minds.''
The company's difficulties also lay with the effective cancellation of this season, cutting most of the ticket revenue, while renovations pushed by Mr. Mortier go forward at the New York State Theater, the company's home.
The major private donor for the work is David H. Koch, a businessman who promised $100 million and will have the theater renamed for him. A spokesman said he was unavailable to comment.
When the gift was announced in July, Mr. Koch said, ''I can assure you, I would not make a gift of this magnitude unless I was absolutely convinced that the quality of the work was world class.''
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