Spanking (heh) New NYCO Chief Gerard "Monsieur Krankypants" Mortier spake with the Associated Press.
"The City Opera was created in '43. That's the same year I was born".
Uh, OK.
"I will try to present in New York a vision of opera that is something for nowadays, that it's not a museum. It's not something from yesterday. When we go to the opera, we can find something for today, answers on questions we are posing today".
"The Neuenfels in Salzburg was a typical protest against Haider," Mortier said, referring to right-wing Austrian politician Jorg Haider. "That I would never bring to New York."
Dude, it's the same thing you said in Salzburg almost 20 years ago, and then tenors started to mime pewping on sopranos onstage as half-n4k3d extras fondled farm animals, all in teh name of "opera that is not a museum".
Coming tomorrow: Opera Chic peruses (?!) 15 years of Mortier verbal fistfights with Liliana Cavani, Luciano Berio, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Madame Von Karajan and many others.