The tentative return of City Opera will take place at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre, the moderately sized and acoustically satisfying venue at Columbus Circle, which the organization is renting for a staging of “Tosca” (Jan. 20-24). “Our goal is to reëngage by returning the company to a Lincoln Center venue, because the audience liked to associate the company with a permanent location,” Capasso says. But will they bite? Those who long for Franco Zeffirelli’s sumptuously conservative production of Puccini’s masterpiece, which the Met replaced with the austerely modernist Luc Bondy staging in 2009, might well be cheered by the NYCO Renaissance production: to evoke the three specific Roman locations in which the composer set each act, the organization has partnered with the Archivio Storico Ricordi, in Milan, to re-create the costumes and décor designed by the great Adolfo Hohenstein for the opera’s world première, in 1900. The two casts for the run will include established up-and-comers (the tenor James Valenti and the soprano Latonia Moore), young unknowns, and even a respected veteran (the baritone Carlo Guelfi)—just as the old City Opera would have done. For anyone in New York who loves opera, attendance is mandatory.

The New York City Opera will sing again.

More than two years after it ran out of money and had to shut down midseason, the cultural institution known as “the people’s opera” won approval of its plan to exit bankruptcy and re-launch performances under the control of an organization headed by hedge-fund manager Roy Niederhoffer.

Judge Sean Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved the opera’s plan Tuesday afternoon, saying he was happy to confirm the plan of “a beloved and important cultural institution.”

New York City Opera is coming back under new management.

The venerable opera company — which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013 after a series of missteps left it unable to put on its season — will soon be revived in a different form under a reorganization plan confirmed Tuesday by Judge Sean H. Lane of United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The group taking over the company, NYCO Renaissance, hopes to use the City Opera name by next week, when it plans to present Puccini’s “Tosca” on Jan. 20-24 at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. If all goes smoothly, company officials said, they hope their new “Tosca” can be billed a co-production of NYCO Renaissance and City Opera. The plan calls for putting on annual seasons.

American Premiere of the Stage and Costume Designs from the Original Production
Six Performances January 20-24, 2016 at
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall

NYCO Renaissance pays tribute to New York City Opera with six performances of a new production of Tosca, January 20–24, 2016 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Center, New York City.

Giacomo Puccini’s three-act melodrama with its vivid Roman tableaux—the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Farnese, and Castel Sant’Angelo—comes to brilliant life in this staging, based on Adolf Hohenstein’s striking set and costume designs for the original production that premiered at Rome’s Teatro Costanzi in 1900. For the first time outside of Italy, American audiences will be able to take in Hohenstein’s majestic Roman setting, produced with the documentary resources and cooperation of the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan. John Farrell serves as associate stage designer and Ildikó Debrezceni as associate costume designer. Director Lev Pugliese, making his American debut, directs the production.

The long, tangled court battle between two groups seeking to revive the bankrupt New York City Opera came to an end on Wednesday afternoon when one group withdrew its proposal and cleared the way for its rival to try to bring back the beloved opera company.

Gene Kaufman, an architect and one of the suitors who has been vying to reorganize and take control of City Opera, withdrew as part of a negotiated settlement that calls for granting his group $300,000, according to a court filing. The move made it almost certain that the next chapter in the company’s history would be written by NYCO Renaissance, a group backed by Roy G. Niederhoffer, an investment manager who served on the old City Opera board.

Peace broke out Wednesday between parties competing for the right to revive New York City Opera.

Two years after the company known as “the people’s opera” shut down, its bankruptcy case will move forward with a plan to pay creditors and hand control of the opera to an organization headed by hedge-fund manager Roy Niederhoffer, a former City Opera board member.

Join us for an exclusive preview of NYCO Renaissance's first fully staged production. This festive evening will include performances by members of the cast and a presentation of the opera's iconic costume and set designs.

NYCO Renaissance announced Wednesday that it would mount Puccini’s “Tosca” — the first production City Opera ever did, back in 1944 — Jan. 20-24 at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, which is in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

“In a tribute to the history of City Opera, it was my idea from the very beginning that the relaunch of City Opera should be with ‘Tosca,’” Michael Capasso, the nascent company’s general director, said in an interview. His concept has changed a bit: The group originally hoped to mount a lavish production by Franco Zeffirelli but now plans to use a historical, more economical one based on the designs Adolf Hohenstein created for the opera’s premiere in 1900 in Rome.

More than two years have passed since New York City Opera filed for bankruptcy, leaving in its wake large debts and a legal battle between two rival groups hoping to revive it. Now one of them has won the backing of an important constituency: the creditors who are owed money in the bankruptcy case.

The group — which is called NYCO Renaissance and is led by Roy G. Niederhoffer, an investment manager, and Michael Capasso, an opera producer — was joined by the official committee of unsecured creditors in the case, in a proposal to reorganize City Opera that was filed late Monday in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The filing said that their plan was “in the best interests of the debtor’s estate and creditors.”

NYCO Renaissance Chairman Roy Niederhoffer will take 10 opera singers on European tour, performing a condensed version of Bizet’s "Carmen."

NYCO Renaissance supporters joined Michael Capasso, Roy Niederhoffer, and host David Drake in New York City for a private performance of "Carmen," condensed into an intense 60 minute version for the occasion.

Honoring its commitment to opera education, NYCO Renaissance presented a one hour version of Rossini’s masterpiece "La Cenerentola." At each ‘Opera for Kids’ performance, children are introduced to the fundamentals of opera through selected scenes performed with sets, costumes, and piano accompaniment. A narrator elucidates the plot, hints at the complexities of the theatre’s stagecraft, and after each performance the children participate in a lively exchange with the singers and crew.

The beloved conductor Julius Rudel, who died last June at 93, could not abide the idea of a memorial for himself. He made this clear to his son, Anthony Rudel, who shared his father’s thoughts with the audience that packed Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater on Monday night for a concert to celebrate Julius Rudel’s life and work, particularly his pioneering 22-year tenure as general director and principal conductor of New York City Opera.

The voice of the people sang and spoke out last night in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, Appel Room and Ertegun Atrium. Many of the world's finest musicians, and many of the finest citizens of NYC assembled to celebrate an effort to return "The People's Opera" to New York. They did so in a Gala Concert and Dinner to honor the life of the late Maestro Julius Rudel, who was the Opera's General Director and Principal Conductor from 1957 to 1979.

NYCO Renaissance Ltd. has partnered with the Rudel family to celebrate the illustrious career of Maestro Julius Rudel and his invaluable contribution to the New York City Opera as principal conductor and director for 22 years from 1957 to 1979.

NYCO Renaissance was pleased to learn earlier this morning that the Board of the New York City Opera has determined that NYCO Renaissances bid was the winning bid submitted at the auction that concluded on Tuesday evening.

The board of the shuttered New York City Opera selected an investor group's $1.25 million offer as the winner in a battle over the right to revive the opera, but an objection from the losing bidder means the drama playing out in bankruptcy court isn't over yet.