Gerard Mortier, new general manager and artistic director of City Opera, who had joined two years ago with great fanfare, and had promised to revolutionize and revitalize opera in New York, has announced his resignation over deep financial problems at the company, saying it is not possible for him to run the company in the current economic climate.  Departing barely after two years, the French born impresario brought impressive credentials to the job, including a successful run at the Paris Opera.

Guaranteed $60-million for his first season of productions beginning next fall, Mortier received just over half that sum, the funding which has fallen substantially short, but all the company’s board can offer.  The drastically short new budget of $36-million, Mortier says is smaller than what the smallest opera house in France receives, and barely one-tenth of what Paris Opera gave him last year, when he was its director.  And, according to Mortier, no funds for innovation, which he has done pretty much done non-stop since his appointment in 2007, leaves him with little choice but to resign.