Music: No Excellence in New York?

A backstage fight at the plucky little New York City Opera burst into full view last week. A policy schism has long troubled the 12-year-old company. Was it to be a "little Met" and give second-class performances of the big company's repertory, or was it to seek out scores that the Metropolitan Opera would not produce and do them well? Manhattan Maecenas Lincoln Kirstein held the second view and, as managing director of the entire New York City Center (opera, ballet, theater), tried to make it work. Through a $200,000 Rockefeller grant, he helped commission such...

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