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143-695: Malbin's first television opera was as Violetta in La Traviata opposite Lawrence Tibbett at the age of 19. Malbin then starred in NBC Television Operas, some available for viewing at the Paley Center, including I Pagliacci, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Salome, Dialogues of the Carmelites, the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's A Trial at Rouen and La Traviata. Her portrayal of Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterly

286-489: A Pakistani enclave. Brooklyn's most populous racial group, white, declined from 97.2% in 1930 to 46.9% by 1990. The borough attracts people previously living in other cities in the United States. Of these, most come from Chicago , Detroit , San Francisco , Washington, D.C. , Baltimore , Philadelphia , Boston , Cincinnati , and Seattle . Given New York City's role as a crossroads for immigration from around

429-551: A humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ), with partial shielding from the Appalachian Mountains and moderating influences from the Atlantic Ocean . Brooklyn receives plentiful precipitation all year round, with nearly 50 in (1,300 mm) yearly. The area averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually, and averages 57% of possible sunshine annually, accumulating 2,535 hours of sunshine per annum. Brooklyn lies in

572-542: A $ 60 million annual budget, which was cut to $ 36 million due to the economic climate. Michael Kaiser was appointed to advise the board on a turnaround strategy, including the recruitment of a new general director. The David H. Koch Theater (previously known as the New York State Theater) underwent major renovations during the 2008/09 season. During the construction the company did not stage opera in its home at Lincoln Center. Instead, New York City Opera presented

715-527: A 14-block area in 1890. On the southwestern waterfront of Kings County, railroads and industrialization spread to Sunset Park (then coterminous with the city's sprawling, sparsely populated Eighth Ward) and adjacent Bay Ridge (hitherto a resort-like subsection of the Town of New Utrecht ). Within a decade, the city had annexed the Town of New Lots in 1886; the Towns of Flatbush , Gravesend and New Utrecht in 1894; and

858-474: A 60th anniversary concert production of William Grant Still 's Troubled Island . In June 2009 Bloomberg reported that the company had incurred a $ 11 million deficit for the year ending June 2008. Revenue fell 23 percent to $ 32.9 million, and expenses rose 11 percent to $ 44.2 million. In January 2009, the company announced the appointment of George Steel as general manager and artistic director, effective February 1, 2009. The New York Times reported at

1001-475: A company mission". Tommasini called Kellogg's decision, at the urging of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani , to open its season on September 15, 2001, directly after the 9/11 attacks , "the most meaningful day of music in 2001," and later used NYCO's opening day in 2001 and its 2009/10 season as symbolic bookends for New York's music scene in the first decade of the 21st century. Vox, Contemporary Opera Lab (also known as Vox: Showcasing American Composers )

1144-740: A concert entitled "Viennese Night" which featured her singing numerous songs and arias by Viennese composers. She performed in concert with The New York Pops several more times over the next year. From 1948 to 1951 Malbin sang in the NBC Chorus that performed in concerts and recordings with the NBC Symphony Orchestra . On May 15, 1949, Malbin made her professional opera debut with the San Carlo Opera Company as Musetta in Giacomo Puccini 's La bohème . She made her Broadway debut on

1287-658: A concert version of Samuel Barber 's Antony and Cleopatra at Carnegie Hall in January 2009, as well as other concerts and programs around the city, and continued to make classroom presentations in New York City's public schools. The company presented three concerts at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 2009: I'm On My Way: Black History at City Opera , One Fine Day: A Tribute to Camilla Williams , and

1430-527: A decrease in housing affordability. Some new developments are required to include affordable housing units. Since the 2010s, parts of Brooklyn have evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship, high-technology startup firms , postmodern art , and design. The name Brooklyn is derived from the original Dutch town of Breukelen . The oldest mention of the settlement in the Netherlands is in a charter of 953 by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I as Broecklede . This form

1573-588: A family opera concert of Oliver Knussen 's Where the Wild Things Are with a libretto by Maurice Sendak ; and Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz with Kristin Chenoweth and Raúl Esparza . In May 2011, the company announced that it would leave Lincoln Center to conserve costs, and present its upcoming season in different venues throughout the city. On the business side, the opera underwent tremendous change under Steel's tenure, which both balanced

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1716-453: A hill near the west end of present-day Atlantic Avenue , was reported to have emotionally exclaimed: "What brave men I must this day lose!". The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, leaving the British in control of New York Harbor . While Washington's defeat on the battlefield cast early doubts on his ability as

1859-779: A home for American singers and composers. The company was originally housed at the New York City Center theater on West 55th Street in Manhattan. It later became part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts at the New York State Theater from 1966 to 2010. During this time it produced autumn and spring seasons of opera in repertory, and maintained extensive education and outreach programs, offering arts-in-education programs to 4,000 students in over 30 schools. In 2011,

2002-517: A huge accumulated deficit, the market collapse of 2008, the radical reduction by the board of the budget and of the size of the season, and the sudden withdrawal of Gerard Mortier, who was to have become General Manager after a lengthy period without leadership (Paul Kellogg, the previous General Director had left in 2007). Under Steel during the 2009–2010 season, the company returned with an opening night program called American Voices consisting of excerpts from American opera. The season also included

2145-452: A long future with New York City Opera." NYCO Renaissance presented Puccini's Tosca – using Adolfo Hohenstein 's stage and costume design from the opera's premiere in 1900 in Rome – in January 2016 at the 1,100-seat Rose Theater. It had two separate casts, including tenor James Valenti and soprano Latonia Moore , and the least expensive balcony seats were $ 25. Tosca had been, in 1944,

2288-726: A longstanding cultural lineage include Canarsie , Sea Gate , and Crown Heights , home to the Chabad world headquarters. Neighborhoods with largely defunct yet historically notable Jewish populations include central Flatbush, East Flatbush, Brownsville, East New York, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay (particularly its Madison subsection). Many hospitals in Brooklyn were started by Jewish charities, including Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park and Brookdale Hospital in East Flatbush. According to

2431-527: A major opera house. In the fall of 1949, the NYCO revived Prokofiev's comic opera The Love for Three Oranges , which had not been seen in America since its unsuccessful Chicago premiere in 1921. The new production, directed by Vladimir Rosing , turned into a smash hit and was brought back for two additional seasons. Also in 1949, Halasz scheduled the world premiere of David Tamkin 's The Dybbuk to be performed by

2574-556: A major role in supplying troops and materiel for the American Civil War . The best-known regiment to be sent off to war from the city was the 14th Brooklyn "Red Legged Devils" . They fought from 1861 to 1864, wore red the entire war, and were the only regiment named after a city. President Abraham Lincoln called them into service, making them part of a handful of three-year enlisted soldiers in April 1861. Unlike other regiments during

2717-703: A new production titled Monodramas which consisted of three solo one-act works: John Zorn 's La Machine de l'être , Arnold Schoenberg 's Erwartung , and Morton Feldman 's Neither . The company also staged the American premiere of Séance on a Wet Afternoon , the first opera by Stephen Schwartz , the veteran composer of Broadway musicals. In addition, the company presented several concert performances that included: An Evening With Christine Brewer ; Lucky To Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein ; John Zorn & Friends (with Laurie Anderson , Lou Reed , Mike Patton , Marc Ribot , Dave Douglas , and Uri Caine );

2860-422: A nonprofit group, NYCO Renaissance, revived the opera company under new management when its reorganization plans for the company to leave bankruptcy and re-launch performances were approved in bankruptcy court. The group, led by Roy Niederhoffer , a hedge fund manager and former board member of the NYCO, announced plans to present a season of opera in 2016−17. The first opera was Puccini's Tosca , presented at

3003-476: A revealing, even defining, season for the rebooted City Opera." New York Classical Review wrote: "On this occasion, Pagliacci emerged considerably more moving than the recent Met production by David McVicar , mostly due to the Rose's increased intimacy. It also didn't hurt that, for the role of Canio, the company snagged Francesco Anile ... [who] has the voice: a clear, expressive instrument that pleasantly "pings" above

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3146-595: A revival of Hugo Weisgall 's Esther , and a new production of Mozart 's Don Giovanni directed by Christopher Alden . The spring season opened in March 2010 and included Emmanuel Chabrier 's L'étoile directed by Mark Lamos , and Handel 's Partenope directed by Andrew Chown; original production directed by Francisco Negrin . The company also continued to collaborate with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Opera Noire of New York to highlight

3289-529: A separate mayor, elected a Borough President . In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, transportation to Manhattan was no longer by water only, and the City of Brooklyn's ties to the City of New York were strengthened. The question became whether Brooklyn was prepared to engage in the still-grander process of consolidation then developing throughout the region, whether to join with the county of Richmond and

3432-503: A variation of the place name " Canarsie ". Bands were associated with place names, but the colonists thought their names represented different tribes. The Breuckelen settlement was named after Breukelen in the Netherlands ; it was part of New Netherland . The Dutch West India Company lost little time in chartering the six original parishes (listed here by their later English town names): The colony's capital of New Amsterdam , across

3575-577: A variety of Jewish businesses. Adjacent to Borough Park, the Kensington area housed a significant population of Conservative Jews (under the aegis of such nationally prominent midcentury rabbis as Jacob Bosniak and Abraham Heller) when it was still considered to be a subsection of Flatbush; many of their defunct facilities have been repurposed to serve extensions of the Borough Park Hasidic community. Other notable religious Jewish neighborhoods with

3718-441: A water meter magnate and close friend of President Grover Cleveland ), with nearby Crown Heights gradually fulfilling an analogous role for the city's Jewish population as development continued through the early 20th century. Northeast of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick (by now a working class, predominantly German district) established a considerable brewery industry; the so-called "Brewer's Row" encompassed 14 breweries operating in

3861-843: A wife and mother and took an almost twelve-year absence from the opera stage. She returned to the opera stage in January 1979 singing Cleopatra in Handel 's Giulio Cesare at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She returned to New York City for a lauded recital at Alice Tully Hall the following October. One of her last appearances on the opera stage was in 2000 as the Barroness in Dicapo Opera 's production of Samuel Barber 's Vanessa . Although she no longer appears in opera, Malbin still occasionally performs in concert. Brooklyn Brooklyn

4004-447: Is a borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the State of New York . Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County , one of twelve original counties established under British rule in 1683 in the then Province of New York . As of the 2020 United States census , the population stood at 2,736,074, making it the most populous of

4147-522: Is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia , was founded in 1943. The company's stated purpose was to make opera accessible to a wide audience at a reasonable ticket price. It also sought to produce an innovative choice of repertory, and provide

4290-849: Is lauded as perhaps her premiere performance. NBC developed a touring company featuring Miss Malbin following the success of the television performances. Concert performances included summer venues including the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, Jones Beach in New York and The Robin Hood Dell in Philadelphia. Smaller venue performances included El San Juan Hotel, San Juan & The Riviera in Havana. Her recordings for RCA Victor include two duets with Mario Lanza released on his Toast Of New Orleans album. Malbin appeared on

4433-761: Is made up of the words broeck , meaning bog or marshland , and lede , meaning small (dug) water stream, specifically in peat areas. Breuckelen on the American continent was established in 1646, and the name first appeared in print in 1663. Over the past two millennia, the name of the ancient town in Holland has been Bracola , Broccke , Brocckede , Broiclede , Brocklandia , Broekclen , Broikelen , Breuckelen, and finally Breukelen . The New Amsterdam settlement of Breuckelen also went through many spelling variations, including Breucklyn , Breuckland , Brucklyn , Broucklyn , Brookland , Brockland , Brocklin , and Brookline/Brook-line . There have been so many variations of

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4576-452: Is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area. Brooklyn was founded by the Dutch in the 17th   century and grew into a busy port city on New York Harbor by the 19th   century. On January   1, 1898, after a long political campaign and public-relations battle during the 1890s and despite opposition from Brooklyn residents, Brooklyn

4719-444: Is water (27%); the borough is the second-largest by land area among the New York City's boroughs. However, Kings County, coterminous with Brooklyn, is New York State's fourth-smallest county by land area and third-smallest by total area. Brooklyn lies at the southwestern end of Long Island, and the borough's western border constitutes the island's western tip. Brooklyn's water borders are extensive and varied, including Jamaica Bay ;

4862-590: The Atlantic Ocean ; The Narrows , separating Brooklyn from the borough of Staten Island in New York City and crossed by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ; Upper New York Bay , separating Brooklyn from Jersey City and Bayonne in the U.S. state of New Jersey ; and the East River , separating Brooklyn from the borough of Manhattan in New York City and traversed by the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel ,

5005-601: The Brighton Beach Line in 1878 heralded the end of this isolation. Sports in Brooklyn became a business. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms played professional baseball at Washington Park in the convenient suburb of Park Slope and elsewhere. Early in the next century, under their new name of Brooklyn Dodgers, they brought baseball to Ebbets Field , beyond Prospect Park. Racetracks, amusement parks , and beach resorts opened in Brighton Beach , Coney Island , and elsewhere in

5148-652: The Brooklyn Bridge , the Manhattan Bridge , the Williamsburg Bridge , and numerous routes of the New York City Subway . To the east of Brooklyn lies the borough of Queens, which contains John F. Kennedy International Airport in that borough's Jamaica neighborhood, approximately two miles from the border of Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood. Under the Köppen climate classification , Brooklyn experiences

5291-471: The Brooklyn Fire Department (BFD) also gave way to the new Metropolitan Fire District. Throughout this period the peripheral towns of Kings County, far from Manhattan and even from urban Brooklyn, maintained their rustic independence. The only municipal change seen was the secession of the eastern section of the Town of Flatbush as the Town of New Lots in 1852. The building of rail links such as

5434-844: The Glyndebourne festival , portraying Colombina in Ferruccio Busoni 's s Arlecchino and her debut at the Edinburgh Festival as Echo in Strauss's Ariadne on Naxos . Shortly thereafter she made the first of many appearances in France and in Italy . In 1955 Malbin portrayed the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly for the NBC Television Opera Theatre. The following year she portrayed

5577-536: The Middle Colonies of nascent British America . On November 1, 1683, Kings County was partitioned from the West Riding of York Shire, containing the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island, as one of the "original twelve counties" . This tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of a Brooklyn identity. Lacking

5720-619: The New Netherland colony in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo-Dutch War . New Netherland was taken in a naval action, and the English renamed the new capture for their naval commander, James, Duke of York , brother of the then monarch King Charles II and future king himself as King James II . Brooklyn became a part of the West Riding of York Shire in the Province of New York , one of

5863-573: The New York City Center on West 55th Street , in Manhattan. City Center's chair of the finance committee, Morton Baum , mayor Fiorello La Guardia and council president Newbold Morris hired Laszlo Halasz hired the company's first director, serving in that position from 1943 until 1951. Given the company's goal of making opera accessible to the masses, Halasz believed that tickets should be inexpensive and that productions should be staged convincingly with singers who were both physically and vocally suited to their roles. To this end, ticket prices during

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6006-674: The Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto . She closed out the year singing in more performances of Carmen with the New York City Opera, this time in the role of Micaela. In March 1951 Malbin made her first performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra singing the soprano solos in a production of Bach 's St Matthew Passion at Rutgers University . That same month she returned to

6149-447: The USDA plant hardiness zone 7b . Brooklyn's neighborhoods are dynamic in ethnic composition. For example, the early to mid-20th century, Brownsville had a majority of Jewish residents; since the 1970s it has been majority African American. Midwood during the early 20th century was filled with ethnic Irish , then filled with Jewish residents for nearly 50 years, and is slowly becoming

6292-501: The automobile and commuter rail -driven vogue for more remote prewar suburban communities, such as Garden City, New York and Montclair, New Jersey . The rapidly growing population needed more water, so the City built centralized waterworks, including the Ridgewood Reservoir . The municipal Police Department, however, was abolished in 1854 in favor of a Metropolitan force covering also New York and Westchester Counties. In 1865

6435-509: The patroon and tenant farmer system established along the Hudson River Valley , this agricultural county unusually came to have one of the highest percentages of slaves among the population in the "Original Thirteen Colonies" along the Atlantic Ocean eastern coast of North America . On August 27, 1776, the Battle of Long Island (also known as the 'Battle of Brooklyn') was fought,

6578-663: The " Little Fuzhou ( 小福州 )" of Brooklyn. Many Chinese restaurants can be found throughout Sunset Park, and the area hosts a popular Chinese New Year celebration. Since the 2000s going forward, the growing concentration of the Cantonese speaking population in Brooklyn have dramatically shifted to Bensonhurst/Gravesend and Homecrest creating newer Chinatowns of Brooklyn and these newer Brooklyn Chinatowns are known as "Brooklyn's Little Hong Kong/Guangdong" due to their Chinese populations being overwhelmingly Cantonese populated. New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO)

6721-547: The 'h' from its name. By 1841, with the appearance of The Brooklyn Eagle, and Kings County Democrat published by Alfred G. Stevens, the growing city across the East River from Manhattan was producing its own prominent newspaper. It later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19, 1842, and the paper was renamed The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and Kings County Democrat on June 1, 1846. On May 14, 1849,

6864-838: The 1883 poem, " The New Colossus " by Emma Lazarus , which appears on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty . The poem calls New York Harbor "the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame". As a twin city to New York, it played a role in national affairs that was later overshadowed by decades of subordination by its old partner and rival. During this period, the affluent, contiguous districts of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill (then characterized collectively as The Hill) were home to such notable figures as Astral Oil Works founder Charles Pratt and his children, including local civic leader Charles Millard Pratt ; Theosophical Society co-founder William Quan Judge ; and Pfizer co-founders Charles Pfizer and Charles F. Erhart . Brooklyn Heights remained one of

7007-531: The 19th century and two-thirds of the 20th century. The first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan , which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1816. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a commuter town for Wall Street . Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York . Town and Village were combined to form

7150-617: The 19th century and was consolidated in 1898 with New York City (then confined to Manhattan and the Bronx ), the remaining rural areas of Kings County, and the largely rural areas of Queens and Staten Island , to form the modern City of New York. The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle Long Island's western edge, which was then largely inhabited by the Lenape , an Algonquian-speaking American Indian tribe often referred to in European documents by

7293-534: The 19th century. The waterfront from Gowanus to Greenpoint was developed with piers and factories. Industrial access to the waterfront was improved by the Gowanus Canal and the canalized Newtown Creek . USS  Monitor was the most famous product of the large and growing shipbuilding industry of Williamsburg. After the Civil War , trolley lines and other transport brought urban sprawl beyond Prospect Park (completed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1873 and widely heralded as an improvement upon

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7436-405: The American Civil War, the 14th wore a uniform inspired by the French Chasseurs , a light infantry used for quick assaults. As a seaport and a manufacturing center, Brooklyn was well prepared to contribute to the Union's strengths in shipping and manufacturing. The two combined in shipbuilding; the ironclad Monitor was built in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is referred to as the twin city of New York in

7579-416: The American Jewish Population Project in 2020, Brooklyn was home to over 480,000 Jews. In 2023, the UJA-Federation of New York estimated that Brooklyn is home to 462,000 Jews, a large decrease compared to the 561,000 estimated in 2011. The predominantly Jewish, Crown Heights (and later East Flatbush)-based Madison Democratic Club served as the borough's primary "clubhouse" political venue for decades until

7722-407: The Dutch town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, Brooklyn shares a border with the borough of Queens . It has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan, across the East River , and is connected to Staten Island by way of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge . With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km ) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km ), Kings County

7865-407: The East River, obtained its charter in 1653. The neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North America's first tide mill . It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today. But the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furman 's 1824 compilation. Present-day Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the English captured

8008-430: The Ed Sullivan Show, Perry Como, and Eddie Fisher Shows, in addition to multiple appearances on The Voice of Firestone and the Jack Parr and Johnny Carson Tonight Shows. On July 4, 1962, Malbin sang at the special request of President John F. Kennedy at the Independence Day celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Malbin also performed for President Nixon, President Truman and President Johnson. Malbin retired at

8151-404: The Heights, the less exclusive South Brooklyn was home to longtime civic leader James S. T. Stranahan , who became known (often derisively) as the " Baron Haussmann of Brooklyn" for championing Prospect Park and other public works. Economic growth continued, propelled by immigration and industrialization , and Brooklyn established itself as the third-most populous American city for much of

8294-414: The NYCO Orchestra, at Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Hall. Bass Stefan Szkafarowsky made his NYCO debut in the title role of Aleko, and Pagliacci featured tenor Francesco Anile in his NYCO debut as Canio. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote that "the performance offered animated, if sometimes scrappy, playing by the New York City Opera Orchestra ... and vibrant singing from

8437-530: The NYCO in 1950. However, the NYCO board opposed the decision and ultimately the production was postponed for financial reasons. Halasz, however, rescheduled the work for inclusion in the 1951/52 season. Uneasy with Halasz's bold repertoire choices, the NYCO board insisted in 1951 that Halasz submit his repertory plans for their approval. As a result, he resigned, along with several members of his conducting staff, including Jean Morel , and two of his eventual successors, Joseph Rosenstock and Julius Rudel . Faced with

8580-419: The NYCO staged Daniel Catán 's Florencia en el Amazonas June 22–26, 2016 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater. Based on the writing of Gabriel García Márquez , the opera was part of a new Spanish-language opera series named Ópera en Español. Reviewing the performance, James Jorden of The New York Observer wrote: "[in] the current offering of the resurrected New York City Opera ... every page of

8723-433: The New York City Opera to portray Javotte in Jules Massenet 's Manon . Later that year she sang Liu in Puccini's Turandot with the company and reprised the roles of Zerlina and Micaela. In October 1951 she appeared on television again as Nedda in NBC Opera Theatre 's production of Ruggero Leoncavallo 's Pagliacci . Malbin returned to Broadway in October 1952 to portray Aida in the musical My Darlin' Aida which

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8866-763: The New York metropolitan area's most august patrician redoubts into the early 20th century under the aegis of such figures as abolitionist clergyman Henry Ward Beecher , Congregationalist theologians Lyman Abbott and Newell Dwight Hillis (who followed Beecher as the second and third pastors of Plymouth Church , respectively), financier John Jay Pierrepont (a grandson of founding Heights resident Hezekiah Pierrepont ), banker/art collector David Leavitt , educator/politician Seth Low , merchant/banker Horace Brigham Claflin , attorney William Cary Sanger (who served for two years as United States Assistant Secretary of War under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt ) and publisher Alfred Smith Barnes . Contiguous to

9009-500: The Paley Center in NY. She attends each event and sits on discussion panels. Born and raised in Brooklyn , Malbin started studying singing as a child and made her professional recital debut at the young age of 14 at New York City's Town Hall on March 31, 1945. That same year she began to perform regularly on the radio on WNEW singing popular songs to entertain the troops during the last year of World War II . She made her Carnegie Hall debut with The New York Pops on May 7, 1947, in

9152-419: The Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center in January 2016. During its 70-year-plus history, the NYCO has helped launch the careers of many great opera singers including Beverly Sills , Sherrill Milnes , Plácido Domingo , Maralin Niska , Carol Vaness , José Carreras , Shirley Verrett , Tatiana Troyanos , Jerry Hadley , Catherine Malfitano , Samuel Ramey , and Gianna Rolandi . Sills later served as

9295-486: The Stoll Theatre. A tremendous success, the show ran for a total of 648 performances. She later reprised the role of Marsinah on Broadway in 1955 and portrayed the role in the show's first National tour. In 1954 Malbin appeared with NBC Television Opera Theatre again starring in the title role of a critically acclaimed production of Richard Strauss 's Salome and in the title role of a production of Puccini's Suor Angelica . That same year she made her first appearance at

9438-440: The Town of Flatlands in 1896. Brooklyn had reached its natural municipal boundaries at the ends of Kings County. Low's time in office from 1882 to 1885 was marked by a number of reforms: Brooklyn elected a mayor from 1834 until 1898, after which it was consolidated into the City of Greater New York , whose own second mayor (1902–1903), Seth Low, had been Mayor of Brooklyn from 1882 to 1885. Since 1898, Brooklyn has, in place of

9581-469: The Valley in a concert version with the New York Philharmonic under conductor Maurice Levine . In September 1950, she sang her first role with the New York City Opera , Princess Ninetta in Sergei Prokofiev 's The Love for Three Oranges . The following month she sang with the company in two more productions, singing Frasquita in Georges Bizet 's Carmen and Zerlina in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's Don Giovanni . On December 14, 1950, she debuted with

9724-515: The Vox performances were presented at New York University 's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts . A note of uncertainty about the company's future emerged in November 2008, when Gerard Mortier , who was scheduled to begin his first official season as General and Artistic Director of the company in 2009, abruptly resigned. The company announced that "The economic climate in which we find ourselves today has caused us both to reconsider proceeding with our plans." Mortier had reportedly been promised

9867-424: The age of 48. His last performance, at the City Opera, was of Hindemith 's Mathis der Maler in September 1995. Keene was succeeded in 1996 by Glimmerglass Opera 's general and artistic director, Paul Kellogg. Under his leadership, the NYCO added 62 new productions to its repertoire, including several world premieres by American composers, and inaugurated the series: Vox: Showcasing American Composers . Kellogg

10010-436: The area, and afterward the British generally enjoyed a dominant Loyalist sentiment from the residents in Kings County who did not evacuate, though the region was also the center of the fledgling—and largely successful— Patriot intelligence network , headed by Washington himself. The British set up a system of prison ships off the coast of Brooklyn in Wallabout Bay . More American patriots died there than in combat on all

10153-424: The area. It is called "Brooklyn's Chinatown" and originally it was a small Chinese enclave with Cantonese speakers being the main Chinese population during the late 1980s and 1990s, but since the 2000s, the Chinese population in the area dramatically shifted to majority Fuzhounese Americans , which contributed immensely to expanding this Chinatown, and bestowing the nicknames " Fuzhou Town ( 福州埠 ), Brooklyn" or

10296-988: The ascendancy of Meade Esposito 's rival, Canarsie-based Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in the 1960s and 1970s, playing an integral role in the rise of such figures as Speaker of the New York State Assembly Irwin Steingut ; his son, fellow Speaker Stanley Steingut ; New York City Mayor Abraham Beame ; real estate developer Fred Trump ; Democratic district leader Beadie Markowitz; and political fixer Abraham "Bunny" Lindenbaum. Many non-Orthodox Jews (ranging from observant members of various denominations to atheists of Jewish cultural heritage) are concentrated in Ditmas Park and Park Slope , with smaller observant and culturally Jewish populations in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island. Over 200,000 Chinese Americans live throughout

10439-730: The battlefield engagements of the American Revolutionary War combined. One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City , which was celebrated by New Yorkers into the 20th century. The first half of the 19th century saw the beginning of the development of urban areas on the economically strategic East River shore of Kings County, facing the adolescent City of New York confined to Manhattan Island. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay (border between Fort Greene and Williamsburg) during

10582-520: The bid of NYCO Renaissance, which was backed financially and chaired by Roy Niederhoffer , a hedge fund manager and accomplished amateur musician who had earlier served on the New York City Opera board, and who pledged more than $ 1 million of his own money to the effort, and raised at least $ 2.5 million. The bankruptcy court approved the reorganization plan of New York City Opera Renaissance, allowing it to leave bankruptcy and re-launch performances, in January 2016. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said he

10725-539: The borough seal and flag , is Eendraght Maeckt Maght , which translates from early modern Dutch as ' Unity makes strength '. Educational institutions in Brooklyn include the City University of New York 's Brooklyn College , Medgar Evers College , and College of Technology . In the first decades of the 21st   century, Brooklyn has experienced a renaissance as a destination for hipsters , with concomitant gentrification , dramatic house-price increases, and

10868-415: The budget and extended the life of the company. These changes led directly to the opera's first balanced budgets in an over a decade and a sold-out 2011–2012 season. Some of the steps Steel took in his efforts to save the company aroused controversy, including a contentious, but ultimately successful, contract negotiation with the labor unions representing the orchestra and the singers, and the departure of

11011-405: The business side, Sills proved to be a godsend to the company, showing a prodigious gift for fund-raising. By the time she retired from her post in early 1989, she had grown the company's budget from $ 9 million ($ 38,000,000 in current dollar terms) to $ 26 million ($ 64,000,000 in current dollar terms), and left the company in the black with a $ 3 million ($ 7,000,000 in current dollar terms) surplus. She

11154-517: The commander, the tactical withdrawal of all his troops and supplies across the East River in a single night is now seen by historians as one of his most brilliant triumphs. The British controlled the surrounding region for the duration of the war, as New York City was soon occupied and became their military and political base of operations in North America for the remainder of the conflict. The Patriot residents largely fled or were cleared from

11297-424: The company became the first major opera company to have an African American performer. This was in the production of Leoncavallo 's Pagliacci , with Todd Duncan 's performance as Tonio. Lawrence Winters and Robert McFerrin were other notable African American opera pioneers to sing with the company during this period. The first African American woman to sing with the company was soprano Camilla Williams , as

11440-493: The company for only one season. He was fired after his ambitious program of contemporary and unusual works for the 1956 season failed to soothe financial problems at the NYCO, and drew harsh criticism from the press. The press particularly did not care for his new productions of Jacques Offenbach 's Orpheus in the Underworld and the American premiere of Carl Orff 's Der Mond . However, Leinsdorf did have one major triumph with

11583-497: The company in the first season, including Dusolina Giannini , Jennie Tourel and Martha Lipton , who was immediately poached by the Met after their NYCO debuts. Other notable singers Halasz brought to the NYCO included Frances Bible , Adelaide Bishop , Débria Brown , Mack Harrell , Thomas Hayward , Dorothy Kirsten , Brenda Lewis , Eva Likova , Leon Lishner , Regina Resnik , Norman Scott , Ramón Vinay , and Frances Yeend . In 1945,

11726-485: The company included the United States premieres of Toshiro Mayuzumi 's Kinkakuji [The Golden Pavilion] and Jost Meier 's Dreyfus Affair . A month before his death Peter G. Davis wrote in New York that "Keene is one of the few authentic cultural heroes New York has left, thanks to his many recent acts of courage, personal as well as artistic." Keene held the position until his death from lymphoma arising from AIDS at

11869-735: The company is at the very top of its game." The Wall Street Journal opined that "Ms. Caballero is a find." New York Classical Review , while noting some staging flaws, wrote: "If this is to be the standard of the company's work going forward, the future may be very bright indeed." The NYCO's Opening Night for the 2016–17 season, on September 8, 2016, was a new production double bill of two operas that both premiered in May 1892, Aleko (a New York premier; composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff , an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin 's poem The Gypsies ) and Pagliacci (by Ruggero Leoncavallo ). They were directed by Lev Pugliese, with conductor James Meena leading

12012-530: The company left Lincoln Center due to financial pressures and moved its offices to 75 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan . In the 2011−12 and 2012−13 seasons, NYCO performed four operas at different venues in New York City, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music . On October 1, 2013, following an unsuccessful emergency fund-raising campaign, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . In January 2016,

12155-544: The company's business model, the opera ultimately succumbed to bankruptcy. On October 1, 2013, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York , citing an inability to raise sufficient funding to continue the 2013/14 season. The company's last production was the U.S. premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage 's Anna Nicole . The case

12298-409: The company's chorus. ... "Pagliacci" offers strong, if not exceptional, vocal performances in the leading roles. The tenor Francesco Anile brings a sizable, somewhat nasal voice to Canio, the betrayed husband. As Nedda, his straying wife, the soprano Jessica Rose Cambio sings with agile coloratura and mostly shimmering sound. ... An enthusiastic audience showed up for the opening event in what should be

12441-718: The company's director from 1979 until 1989. More recent acclaimed American singers who have called NYCO home include David Daniels , Mark Delavan , Mary Dunleavy , Lauren Flanigan , Elizabeth Futral , Bejun Mehta , Robert Brubaker and Carl Tanner . NYCO has similarly championed the work of American composers; approximately one-third of its repertoire has traditionally been American opera. The company's American repertoire has ranged from established works ( e.g. , Douglas Moore 's The Ballad of Baby Doe , Carlisle Floyd 's Susannah , and Leonard Bernstein 's Candide ) to new works ( e.g. , Thomas Pasatieri 's Before Breakfast and Mark Adamo 's Little Women ). NYCO's commitment to

12584-788: The company's first season were priced at just 75 cents to $ 2 ($ 35 in current dollar terms), and the company operated on a budget of $ 30,463 ($ 5,300,000 in current dollar terms) during its first season. At such prices the company was unable to afford the star billing enjoyed by the Metropolitan Opera . Halasz, however, was able to turn this fact into a virtue by making the company an important platform for young singers, particularly American opera singers. The company's first season opened on February 21, 1944, with Giacomo Puccini 's Tosca , and included productions of Friedrich von Flotow 's Martha and Georges Bizet 's Carmen , all of them conducted by Halasz. Several notable singers performed with

12727-538: The company, as the new director. He served in that post for four seasons, during which time he continued in Halász's steps of scheduling innovative programs with unusual repertoire mixed in with standard works. He notably staged the world premiere of Aaron Copland 's The Tender Land , the New York premiere of William Walton 's Troilus and Cressida , and the United States premieres of Gottfried von Einem 's The Trial and Béla Bartók 's Bluebeard's Castle . Rosenstock

12870-522: The company. With the NYCO Sills had her first major critical success in the first Handel opera staged by the company, the role of Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare opposite Norman Treigle in 1966. At that time Handel operas were rarely produced and the production drew a lot of attention from the international press. Sills was soon making appearances with all the major opera houses around the world. While Sills

13013-465: The day shift and another 12 on the night shift. Every time a rash of burglaries broke out, officials blamed burglars from New York City. Finally, in 1855, a modern police force was created, employing 150 men. Voters complained of inadequate protection and excessive costs. In 1857, the state legislature merged the Brooklyn force with that of New York City. Fervent in the Union cause, the city of Brooklyn played

13156-535: The earlier Central Park ) into the center of the county, as evinced by gradual settlement in the comparatively rustic villages of Windsor Terrace and Kensington in the Town of Flatbush. By century's end, Dean Alvord 's Prospect Park South development (adjacent to the village of Flatbush) would serve as the template for contemporaneous " Victorian Flatbush " micro-neighborhoods and the post-consolidation emergence of outlying districts, such as Midwood and Marine Park . Along with Oak Park, Illinois , it also presaged

13299-557: The first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared , and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the modern sites of Green-Wood Cemetery , Prospect Park , and Grand Army Plaza . Washington , viewing particularly fierce fighting at the Gowanus Creek and Old Stone House from atop

13442-597: The first opera performed by the NYCO. The NYCO announced that it would round out the 2015–16 season with the performance of three contemporary works, all new to the company. On March 16, 2016, a new concert series at the Appel Room in Jazz at Lincoln Center was inaugurated with the premiere of David Hertzberg's "Sunday Morning". A work for soprano and small ensemble, it featured soprano Sarah Shafer and mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez. That

13585-457: The first professional production of Carlisle Floyd 's Susannah with Phyllis Curtin in the title role, and Norman Treigle as the Reverend Blitch. The production was a critical success with both audiences and critics, and the opera went on to become an American classic. After Leinsdorf was fired, the NYCO board canceled its 1957 spring season and eventually appointed Julius Rudel as

13728-792: The first time with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company as Madama Butterfly. In 1962 she made her debut with the Pittsburgh Opera and sang the title role in Massenet's Manon for the first time with the New York City Opera . That year was also her first appearance at the Scottish Opera where she sang Madama Butterfly. From 1963 to 1964 Malbin toured the United States with the San Carlo Opera Company portraying

13871-412: The first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. In a parallel development, the Town of Bushwick, farther up the river, saw the incorporation of the Village of Williamsburgh in 1827, which separated as the Town of Williamsburgh in 1840 and formed the short-lived City of Williamsburgh in 1851. Industrial deconcentration in the mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to

14014-431: The five boroughs of New York City, the most populous county in the state. Brooklyn, at 37,339.9 inhabitants per square mile (14,417.0/km ), is the second most densely populated county in the U.S. after Manhattan (New York County), as of 2022. Had Brooklyn remained an independent city, it would now be the fourth most populous American city after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles , and Chicago . Named after

14157-724: The following October 4 as Peep-Bo in Gilbert and Sullivan 's The Mikado at the Mark Hellinger Theatre , notably the inaugural season of that theatre. She performed in two other Gilbert and Sullivan shows at that theatre through October 22: Edith in The Pirates of Penzance and the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury . Shortly thereafter she was cast as Violetta in C.B.S. Opera Television Theatre 's production of Giuseppe Verdi 's La Traviata which

14300-530: The future of American opera was demonstrated in its annual series, Vox, Contemporary Opera Lab , in which operas-in-progress were showcased, giving composers a chance to hear their work performed by professional singers and orchestra. The company has also occasionally produced musicals and operettas , including works by Stephen Sondheim and Gilbert and Sullivan . The NYCO was founded as the New York City Center Opera, and originally made its home at

14443-632: The height of her career in 1968. She returned to the stage in January 1979 as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She also gave a recital at Alice Tully Hall the same year. Following these two major performances Malbin returned to semi-retirement. She became involved with teaching, mentoring young artists and working with the boards of several opera and arts foundations. Her television operas have been featured with events at

14586-589: The house seats. In January 1956 the NYCO board accepted Rosenstock's resignation. He stated that he left because he was faced with too much non-musical work such as bookings and business negotiations. The board appointed Erich Leinsdorf , who had worked as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, the Cleveland Orchestra , and the Rochester Philharmonic , to take his place. Leinsdorf stayed with

14729-647: The inaugural of the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company opposite John Alexander as Rodolfo. The following October she made her debut with the San Francisco Opera singing the soprano solos in Carl Orff 's Carmina Burana . In 1955, for NBC Opera Theatre , she performed the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly . In 1961 Malbin made her debut with the Opera Company of Boston and sang for

14872-537: The inauguration of the NYCO's new home at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center (now called the David H. Koch Theater ) on February 22, 1966. That same season the company presented the New York premiere of Poulenc 's Dialogues of the Carmelites . Like his predecessors, Rudel had an eye for young American talent and was responsible for helping to cultivate a couple of generations of American singers. Among

15015-399: The loss of Brooklyn's separate identity as a city was met with consternation by some residents at the time. Many newspapers of the day called the merger the "Great Mistake of 1898", and the phrase still elicits Brooklyn pride among old-time Brooklynites. Brooklyn is 97 square miles (250 km ) in area, of which 71 square miles (180 km ) is land (73%), and 26 square miles (67 km )

15158-410: The most tension between Halasz and the board was Halasz's commitment to staging new works by American composers and rarely heard operas at the opera house. The first New York City premiere presented by the company was Richard Strauss 's Ariadne auf Naxos on October 10, 1946, with Ella Flesch in the title role, Virginia MacWatters as Zerbinetta, and James Pease as the music master. The production

15301-410: The name that its origin has been debated; some have claimed breuckelen means "broken land". The current name, however, is the one that best reflects its meaning. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years. The settlement began in the 17th century as the small Dutch-founded town of "Breuckelen" on the East River shore of Long Island , grew to be a sizeable city in

15444-462: The name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle ; on September 5, 1938, it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle . The establishment of the paper in the 1840s helped develop a separate identity for Brooklynites over the next century. The borough's soon-to-be-famous National League baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers , also assisted with this. Both major institutions were lost in the 1950s:

15587-454: The nation. Brooklyn contains dozens of distinct neighborhoods representing many of the major culturally identified groups found within New York City. Among the most prominent are listed below: Over 600,000 Jews , particularly Orthodox and Hasidic Jews , have become concentrated in such historically Jewish areas as Borough Park , Williamsburg , and Midwood , where there are many yeshivas , synagogues , and kosher restaurants, as well as

15730-449: The new general director of the company. Rudel had been hired by the NYCO straight out of college in 1944, and had worked on the conducting staff there for 13 years. Under Rudel's leadership, the company reached new artistic heights, drawing critical praise for its performances of both standard and adventurous works. The company became known for its cutting-edge stage direction, largely due to Rudel's willingness to poach renowned directors from

15873-488: The northern part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems. However, the East River shore was growing too fast for the three-year-old infant City of Williamsburg; it, along with its Town of Bushwick hinterland, was subsumed within a greater City of Brooklyn in 1855, subsequently dropping

16016-400: The opera from Lincoln Center out of financial necessity. While the company had for more than a decade discussed publicly the idea of leaving Lincoln Center, the company's ultimate departure, driven by the financial reality that the opera would otherwise have to close, was met alternately with praise and scepticism. Notwithstanding artistic successes, record fundraising, and dramatic changes to

16159-524: The orchestra, and equally, what appears to be a fountain of acting chops. In the famous scene in which Canio realizes that Nedda has been unfaithful, the soft sobbing into his costume was undeniably affecting. And when he leaped onstage to open the traveling show, his drunkenness was believable, not overdone. ... After a rocky few years, this musically and emotionally satisfying double bill is the best evidence yet that this storied company may at last be staggering to its feet." The Huffington Post opined: "NYCO

16302-538: The paper closed in 1955 after unsuccessful attempts at a sale following a reporters' strike, and the baseball team decamped for Los Angeles in a realignment of Major League Baseball in 1957. Agitation against Southern slavery was stronger in Brooklyn than in New York, and under Republican leadership, the city was fervent in the Union cause in the Civil War . After the war the Henry Ward Beecher Monument

16445-445: The performing arts have never been profit-making endeavors. It is more important than ever that all institutions, from a fledgling string quartet to the lofty Metropolitan Opera, have an effective business model. A not-for-profit company named NYCO Renaissance Ltd. proposed a Chapter 11 plan for the reorganization of New York City Opera in 2015, and the reorganization of the existing company took place in 2016. An additional incentive

16588-479: The plan was for Sills to share the post with Rudel, and slowly phase him out. However, Rudel decided to resign in 1979 in order to take a position as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic , and Sills took the post over entirely. At the time Sills assumed her position, the NYCO was in financial difficulties, burdened with a three million dollar debt after a few seasons with less than favorable reviews. On

16731-414: The resignations of most of their creative staff, the board reluctantly backed down and The Dybbuk was given its world premiere at the NYCO on October 4, 1951. But tensions remained high between Halasz and the board, and they fired him in late 1951 when Halasz became involved in union disputes. After Halász was fired, the NYCO board appointed Joseph Rosenstock , who was already working as a conductor with

16874-570: The role of Joan of Arc in the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio 's The Trial at Rouen which was composed for the NBC Television Opera Theatre. She appeared in two more television productions with the NBC Television Opera Theatre the following year, Violetta in La Traviata and Blanche in Poulenc 's Dialogues of the Carmelites . On February 10, 1958, she performed the role of Mimi in La Bohème for

17017-621: The role of opera in African-American history , including the programs Opera at the Schomburg , A Tribute to Robert McFerrin , and X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X . In April 2010, NYCO's VOX Contemporary Opera Lab featured new works of emerging and established composers at New York University . The company's 2010–2011 season included a new production of Leonard Bernstein 's A Quiet Place directed by Christopher Alden ; Richard Strauss 's Intermezzo directed by Leon Major ; and

17160-585: The roles of Madama Butterfly and Mimi. She also made her first appearance at the Houston Grand Opera in 1967 singing Madama Butterfly. That same year she portrayed her first opera role with the San Francisco Opera, Leila in Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles . In 1967 Malbin met and married her husband, George Emanuel. They have two daughters. At this point she decided to retire her career to focus on being

17303-425: The score sails orgasmically over the top, as sinfully rich as molten caramel sauce ... The reconstituted New York City Opera should be bursting with pride at the high level of quality extending across every aspect of this presentation ... Among as strong a cast of vocalists as I've heard at NYCO in 20 years or more, the standout appropriately was Elizabeth Caballero as Florencia. ... this production makes it clear that

17446-405: The singers whose careers he furthered were bass-baritone Samuel Ramey and lirico-spinto soprano Carol Vaness . One of his most apt decisions was in forming an artistic partnership with Beverly Sills , making her the NYCO's leading soprano from 1956 until her retirement from the stage in 1979, although Joseph Rosenstock deserves the credit for hiring her in 1955 for her first performances with

17589-638: The southern part of the county. Toward the end of the 19th century, the City of Brooklyn experienced its final, explosive growth spurt. Park Slope was rapidly urbanized, with its eastern summit soon emerging as the city's third "Gold Coast" district alongside Brooklyn Heights and The Hill; notable residents of the era included American Chicle Company co-founder Thomas Adams Jr. and New York Central Railroad executive Clinton L. Rossiter. East of The Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant coalesced as an upper middle class enclave for lawyers, shopkeepers, and merchants of German and Irish descent (notably exemplified by John C. Kelley,

17732-525: The southern parts of Brooklyn, primarily concentrated in Sunset Park , Bensonhurst , Gravesend , and Homecrest . Brooklyn is the borough that is home to the highest number of Chinatowns in New York City . The largest concentration is in Sunset Park along 8th Avenue, which has become known for its Chinese culture since the opening of the now-defunct Winley Supermarket in 1986 spurred widespread settlement in

17875-464: The theatre who had not necessarily been involved with opera before. By the mid-1960s the company was generally regarded as one of the leading opera companies in the United States. During his tenure at City Opera, Rudel displayed a strong commitment to American opera, commissioning 12 works and leading 19 world premieres. He also led a large number of United States premieres, including Alberto Ginastera 's Don Rodrigo with tenor Plácido Domingo for

18018-473: The time that "many consider [the NYCO] the nation's second most important house." In January 2009, when Steel was asked to take the helm of the opera to try to turn the company around, it had suffered a string of financial and managerial blows: a decade of multimillion-dollar deficits, a "dark" season in 2008/09 ( i.e. , a season without any staged opera performances), the depletion of Company's endowment to pay off

18161-472: The title heroine in Madama Butterfly in 1946. Halasz had a tumultuous relationship with the company's board of directors, given his strong opinions about what the NYCO should be. For one, he supported the idea of performing foreign language works in English to make opera more accessible to American audiences. He insisted on offering at least one production in English every season. The issue that created,

18304-554: The western portion of Queens County , and the county of New York , which by then already included the Bronx , to form the five boroughs of a united City of New York. Andrew Haswell Green and other progressives said yes, and eventually, they prevailed against the Daily Eagle and other conservative forces. In 1894, residents of Brooklyn and the other counties voted by a slight majority to merge, effective in 1898. Kings County retained its status as one of New York State's counties, but

18447-421: The world, Brooklyn has evolved a globally cosmopolitan ambiance of its own, demonstrating a robust and growing demographic and cultural diversity with respect to metrics including nationality, religion, race, and domiciliary partnership . In 2010, 51.6% of the population was counted as members of religious congregations. In 2014, there were 914 religious organizations in Brooklyn, the 10th most of all counties in

18590-537: Was able to achieve this while still reducing ticket prices by 20 percent, with the hope of attracting new and younger audiences. Sills retired as General Director in 1989, and was replaced by conductor Christopher Keene —largely on the basis of Sills' strong recommendation. Keene had previously worked as a conductor at the NYCO since 1970, and had served as the NYCO's Music Director from 1982 to 1986. Keene consistently presented innovative opera seasons that were successful with critics during his tenure. His last season with

18733-505: Was adapted by Charles Friedman from Giuseppe Verdi 's Aida , resetting the opera during the American Civil War . She portrayed the role through January 1953 when the show closed. In April 1953 she returned to the New York City Opera to sing her first Adele in Johann Strauss II Die Fledermaus . Shortly thereafter she made her United Kingdom debut portraying Marsinah in the original West End cast of Kismet at

18876-872: Was also instrumental in establishing the NYCO as an important producer of operas by baroque masters such as Handel, Gluck , and Rameau , sparking a renewal of interest in these long-neglected works. A particular triumph was a highly lauded production of Handel's Orlando in 2007 in a modern production by Chas Rader-Shieber that starred countertenor Bejun Mehta and the soprano Amy Burton. In keeping with NYCO's "people's opera" tradition, Kellogg inaugurated NYCO's "Opera for All" event, with reduced priced tickets, in 2005. Kellogg announced his retirement in 2007. Anthony Tommasini , in The New York Times , commented that Kellogg had "a record of innovation and achievement to be proud of. Few leaders of performing-arts institutions have been as effective at defining and carrying out

19019-528: Was also the first NYCO director to include musical theatre in the company's repertoire, with a 1954 production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II 's Show Boat ; a production which starred Broadway musical veteran and operatic soprano Helena Bliss . This decision was ridiculed by the press, but Rosenstock felt justified as the musical played to a packed house. Meanwhile, the company's staging of Donizetti 's opera Don Pasquale that season only sold 35 percent of

19162-578: Was an annual concert series dedicated to the development of contemporary American operas. Founded by New York City Opera in 1999, the festival offered composers and librettists the opportunity to hear excerpts of their works performed with professional singers and musicians. Up to twelve excerpts of previously un-produced operas were performed at each festival. Many of the operas that were presented at Vox went on to be presented in full production by New York City Opera and various other opera companies, including Richard Danielpour 's Margaret Garner . From 2006,

19305-465: Was before Judge Sean Lane. In an article in the New York Times , music critic Anthony Tommasini noted one of the reasons for the company's 2013 bankruptcy (as well as relating it to other failed arts organizations): In short, artistic excellence is not enough. Any institution, big or small, old or new, must have a clear artistic vision, a purpose that connects with audiences and the community. But

19448-440: Was built downtown to honor a famous local abolitionist . A great victory arch was built at what was then the south end of town to celebrate the armed forces; this place is now called Grand Army Plaza . The number of people living in Brooklyn grew rapidly early in the 19th century. There were 4,402 by 1810, 7,175 in 1820 and 15,396 by 1830. The city's population was 25,000 in 1834, but the police department comprised only 12 men on

19591-415: Was busy with her international career, she remained a regular performer with the NYCO until her retirement. In 1970 John Simon White was appointed managing director of the NYCO, in order to free up Rudel's schedule for the more artistic side of his job. White remained in that position until 1980. Upon Sills's retirement from the stage in 1979, she succeeded Rudel as General Director of the NYCO. Initially

19734-462: Was consolidated in and annexed (along with other areas) to form the current five-borough structure of New York City in accordance to the new municipal charter of " Greater New York ". The borough continues to maintain some distinct culture . Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves . With Jews forming around a quarter of its population, the borough has been described as "the most Jewish spot on Earth". Brooklyn's official motto, displayed on

19877-402: Was described by the contemporary press as "record breaking", and it put the company "on the map". The NYCO subsequently toured Ariadne to His Majesty's Theatre, Montreal , giving the opera's Canadian premiere. The first world premiere at the house was William Grant Still 's Troubled Island in 1949. It was notably the first grand opera composed by an African-American to be produced in

20020-709: Was first broadcast on March 12, 1950. Malbin began 1950 singing in a concert of opera arias at the Detroit Opera House with the Detroit Civic Opera . On April 18, 1950, she made her first appearance at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts singing with the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra in an evening honoring Margaret Truman . On July 12, 1950, she performed the role of Jenny in Kurt Weill 's Down in

20163-486: Was followed by the East Coast premiere of composer Stewart Wallace 's and librettist Michael Korie 's Hopper's Wife – a surreal, erotically-charged 90-minute 1997 chamber opera fantasy about an imagined marriage between the painter Edward Hopper and the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper . It was directed by Andreas Mitisek at Harlem Stage from April 28 through May 1, 2016, in his New York City directorial debut. Third,

20306-476: Was made to those who had purchased tickets and not received a refund. The group announced plans to relaunch New York City Opera in January 2016, with a mix of opera staples and niche works. The proposed new home for a revived NYCO is the modern 1,100-seat Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center . Both the City Opera board and – unanimously – the creditors' committee (those owed money in the bankruptcy) preferred

20449-471: Was pleased to approve the plan of "a beloved and important cultural institution," and that "It's been the participation of people who care greatly about the opera that's led to what I think is a very good result here today." Under the reorganization plan, the opera will put on annual seasons, and its general director will be Michael Capasso . Gail Kruvand, the chairwoman of the City Opera orchestra committee, said: "We're thrilled ... and we're looking forward to

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