It may be curtains for the New York City Opera.
The broke opera company, which is entangled in a bitter contract dispute with two unions, says it plans to lock out its musicians today, throwing the future of the company into doubt.
“It’s condition critical,” said Alan Gordon, national executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the chorus, singers and stage directors.
The company, which helped launch the careers of opera legends Placido Domingo and Beverly Sills, canceled today’s rehearsals for the Verdi masterpiece “La Traviata,” which is slated to have a Feb. 12-18 run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. That opening is now uncertain.
“I don’t see how that performance can still happen, even if there’s a deal [today],” Gordon said. “It’s just a mess.”
Talks broke off Saturday night between management and the AGMA as well as the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the orchestra.
Opera management deflected blame for the shutdown, saying a contract offer sweetened by “hundreds of thousands of dollars” had met with union resistance and strike threats.
“As we have said countless times, for New York City Opera to survive, we must transition to the model that most opera companies use: paying people only for the work they do,” said George Steel, the opera’s general manager.
“We went to extraordinary lengths to enrich the offer well beyond this basic model by putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits and insurance on the table while the unions put up artificial roadblocks and refused to budge.”
While the performers were once guaranteed more than four months’ pay, union officials said a December management proposal would have cut their pay from about $40,000 to $5,000 for two performances.
“They don’t want it to die,” Gordon said of the 100-plus performers affected by the lockout. “They want to perform.”
No longer able to pay the rent on its longtime home, the troubled company last year announced plans to leave Lincoln Center.
The opera instead shifted upcoming performances to venues around the city, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Guggenheim Museum and El Museo del Barrio.
The opera also shrank its budget from $31 million to $13 million.
“Opera management stretched every dollar available to them to create a proposal that would suit their economic constraints and encourage the unions to come back to work, but the unions refused,” City Opera management said in a written statement.
Other New York City Opera performances scheduled for this season include “Prima Donna,” “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “Orpheus.”