Newly-Appointed Music Director Of New York City Opera Wants To Make It 'People's Opera'

The recently-appointed New York City Opera musical director and principal conductor, Constantine Orbelian, said in an interview with Sputnik that he plans to make it "the people's opera" again

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th June, 2021) The recently-appointed New York City Opera musical director and principal conductor, Constantine Orbelian, said in an interview with Sputnik that he plans to make it "the people's opera" again.

On June 7, the Manhattan-based opera company appointed the San Francisco-born musician of Armenian and Russian descent as its new music director and principal conductor. The theater was founded in 1943 by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and dubbed as "the people's opera."

"The New York City Opera, which was founded in 1943, was the people's opera. There was also a Metropolitan Opera, but it was expensive and for a certain audience," Orbelian said.

According to the conductor, some opera productions will be brought to New York from abroad.

"I want to bring Armenian opera, hopefully, Anoush. Russian operas are very important for us. The New York City Opera has staged the opera Aleko by Sergei Rachmaninoff. ... I want to introduce young composers who create modern operas that will be of interest to the international public," Orbelian said.

The maestro added that he would like to invite a number of famous performers to the New York City Opera, including Russia's bass singer Ildar Abdrazakov and operatic soprano Hibla Gerzmava, among others.

Speaking about the relations between the United States and Russia, Orbelian expressed his hope that the upcoming presidential summit in Geneva would be the start of something good.

The musician's father, Harry Orbelian, worked in the San Francisco Chamber, where he headed the international department and organized trade missions to foreign countries. He made a significant contribution to the development of bilateral trade, economic and cultural ties between California and the Soviet Union, as well as persuading Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to visit San Francisco for the first time in 1990.

"You asked what I expected ... Miracles like that of my father's who brought Dianne Feinstein [San Francisco Mayor in 1978-1988] to Moscow to meet with Gorbachev, and then organized Gorbachev's trip to San Francisco. Let's hope that the current summit will bring some positive results to the world," Orbelian said.

According to the musician, his father's goal was to bring the two countries together.

"Everyone I have talked to wants to be friends with Russia, everyone wants to see Russian artists, everyone wants to listen to Russian music. [Russian conductor Valery] Gergiev, who comes here all the time with his magnificent programs and the Mariinsky Theater, are all pearls, gold and diamonds of Russian culture, which are needed all over the world and are welcomed all over the world," Orbelian said, adding that "it's time for some kind of compromise."