George Steel Ditches Dallas Opera for New York City Opera
Holy smokes. From the NYT story:
His hiring came as a blow to the smaller and less prestigious Dallas Opera, where he had just started as general director in October.
You think so, doctor?
10 Comments to “George Steel Ditches Dallas Opera for New York City Opera”
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I am shocked to read this but hope he will be the man to right the ship in New York, and I wish him the best!
Do not confuse New York City Opera with the Metropolitan Opera. NYCO is (at best) the second biggest opera company in New York City.
A New York person wrote the artice for a New York newspaper, so of course they will regard Dallas as “smaller and less prestigious”. It would be interesting to compare the budgets of the 2 companies for the last couple years to see how true the first comparison is. And as far as being less prestigious…well…a company is only as good as it’s current season. This season NYCO is dark. Next season Dallas moves into what may be one of the best houses in the world.
Just in case anyone wants to share some love at the New York City Opera blog, where the exciting news was posted:
http://blog.nycopera.com/pr/nycopera/blog/blog-post.aspx?id=1388
Mr. Steel should remember the commitment he made to the Dallas Opera when he accepted the position. No job, no matter how special, is worth turning your back on people who just took a big chance and hired you.
@ Billy: I’m sure Steel remembered his commitment. And I’m sure he described that commitment in detail to the NYC Opera. And I’d bet that the commitment — and breaking it — cost the NYC Opera when it came time to negotiate Steel’s salary.
It’s a nonprofit, yes? So it won’t be long before we’ll be able to learn how much he’s being paid there.
(Not that his decision was influenced by money. No, no, no.)
Tim,
I have no doubt his decision in the end was influenced by money, but I think his inner Wendy Kroy was driving his need to leave our little town for brighter lights and a bigger city. Our new palace is shiny, but it dos not yet have the cache of Steel’s new fixer upper.
Duh! Compared to NYC, this is Tyler.
I’m an ex-newspaperman with management experience and an i-Pod with some Puccini on it. I’d like to apply for the Dallas Opera job. You can trust me to stay in town longer than October to January. Probably the Dallas Opera would be embarrassed only by my pronunciations and attempts to inspire an audience singalong when the show dragged…
I even have seen an opera. And one of my favorite movies is A Night At The Opera.
Plus, I give a damn about Dallas. And that ought to mean something in this stupid town.
And people complain about college and pro coaches ditching one team to move to another!
It’s a very good thing he bailed. He would have run the Dallas Opera into the ground. His ideas were very out of touch with the concert going audience here.
The most surprising thing of all is the fact two major opera companies hired a leader with NO opera experience. Being a boy soprano in no way qualifies one to run a huge opera company.
Operafan,
You’re right on. “Out of touch” may be generous. The search committee really flopped on this pick, and TDO is really lucky that some NY suckers took him off our hands. The Madoff crowd still hasn’t learned.
I predict that wee Georgie wont’ last two years in NY once they realize that he can’t and won’t raise the funds to close the budget gap.