NY City Opera commissions supermodel opera

The company they brought back from the dead is showing vital signs of life.

Next season, its first since returning from bankruptcy, New York City Opera will stage six productions.

They include a Harold Prince production of Bernstein’s Candide; a double bill of Rachmaninov’s esoteric Aleko with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci; Respighi’s La Campana Sommersa (The Sunken Bell); and the New York premieres of Peter Eotvos’s Angels in America, based on the Tony Kushner play, and Tobin Stokes’ Iraq War saga, Fallujah.

In addition, the company has commissioned a supermodel bio-opera, American Venus, on the life of Audrey Munson, from Tobias Picker for 2019.

All this on a budget of $6.4 million.

It’s fresh, it’s different, it’s not the Met.

What’s not to like?

A cautionary word: it was a supermodel opera, Anna Nicole, that sank City Opera last time round.