New York City Opera Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is New York City's second opera company (after the Metropolitan Opera). Its home base is Philip Johnson's New York State Theater at Lincoln Center.The company was founded in 1944 with the aim of an opera company that would be financially accessible to a wide audience, innovative in its choice of repertory, and a home for American singers and composers.
In its early years, the company's home base was the City Center on West 55th Street. On February 22, 1966, it innaugurated its new home at Lincoln Center with a production of Alberto Ginastera's Don Rodrigo with tenor Plácido Domingo.
In 1996, the American soprano Beverly Sills made her major breakthrough as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare. Although Sills went on to become a leading opera singer, she remained faithful to the NYCO. Upon her retirement from the stage in 1979, she joined the company as its City Opera's General Director, replacing Julius Rudel, who had led the company since 1957.
In 1983, the NYCO became the first American company to use supertitles.
In recent years, the works of baroque masters such as Handel, Gluck, and Rameau have gained special prominence in its repertoire, sparking a renewal of interest in these long-neglected works
The NYCO has extensive education and outreach programs, offering arts-in-education programs to 12,000 students in over seventy-five schools.