[6][7] The group, led by Roy Niederhoffer, a hedge fund manager and former board member of the NYCO, announced plans to present a season of opera in 2016−17.

[8][9][10] During its 70-year-plus history, the NYCO has helped launch the careers of many great opera singers including Beverly Sills, Sherrill Milnes, Plácido Domingo, Maralin Niska, Carol Vaness, José Carreras, Shirley Verrett, Tatiana Troyanos, Jerry Hadley, Catherine Malfitano, Samuel Ramey, and Gianna Rolandi.

[11] More recent acclaimed American singers who have called NYCO home include David Daniels, Mark Delavan, Mary Dunleavy, Lauren Flanigan, Elizabeth Futral, Bejun Mehta, Robert Brubaker and Carl Tanner.

Given the company's goal of making opera accessible to the masses, Halasz believed that tickets should be inexpensive and that productions should be staged convincingly with singers who were both physically and vocally suited to their roles.

[13] The company's first season opened on February 21, 1944, with Giacomo Puccini's Tosca,[12] and included productions of Friedrich von Flotow's Martha and Georges Bizet's Carmen, all of them conducted by Halasz.

Several notable singers performed with the company in the first season, including Dusolina Giannini, Jennie Tourel and Martha Lipton, who was immediately poached by the Met after their NYCO debuts.

The first New York City premiere presented by the company was Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos on October 10, 1946, with Ella Flesch in the title role, Virginia MacWatters as Zerbinetta, and James Pease as the music master.

He served in that post for four seasons, during which time he continued in Halász's steps of scheduling innovative programs with unusual repertoire mixed in with standard works.

He was fired after his ambitious program of contemporary and unusual works for the 1956 season failed to soothe financial problems at the NYCO, and drew harsh criticism from the press.

However, Leinsdorf did have one major triumph with the first professional production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Phyllis Curtin in the title role, and Norman Treigle as the Reverend Blitch.

The company became known for its cutting-edge stage direction, largely due to Rudel's willingness to poach renowned directors from the theatre who had not necessarily been involved with opera before.

One of his most apt decisions was in forming an artistic partnership with Beverly Sills, making her the NYCO's leading soprano from 1956 until her retirement from the stage in 1979,[21] although Joseph Rosenstock deserves the credit for hiring her in 1955 for her first performances with the company.

With the NYCO Sills had her first major critical success in the first Handel opera staged by the company, the role of Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare opposite Norman Treigle in 1966.

[23] At the time Sills assumed her position, the NYCO was in financial difficulties, burdened with a three million dollar debt after a few seasons with less than favorable reviews.

His last season with the company included the United States premieres of Toshiro Mayuzumi's Kinkakuji [The Golden Pavilion] and Jost Meier's Dreyfus Affair.

Kellogg was also instrumental in establishing the NYCO as an important producer of operas by baroque masters such as Handel, Gluck, and Rameau, sparking a renewal of interest in these long-neglected works.

Founded by New York City Opera in 1999, the festival offered composers and librettists the opportunity to hear excerpts of their works performed with professional singers and musicians.

[46] The company's 2010–2011 season included a new production of Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place directed by Christopher Alden; Richard Strauss's Intermezzo directed by Leon Major; and a new production titled Monodramas which consisted of three solo one-act works: John Zorn's La Machine de l'être, Arnold Schoenberg's Erwartung, and Morton Feldman's Neither.

[47] In addition, the company presented several concert performances that included: An Evening With Christine Brewer; Lucky To Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein; John Zorn & Friends (with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Mike Patton, Marc Ribot, Dave Douglas, and Uri Caine); a family opera concert of Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are with a libretto by Maurice Sendak; and Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz with Kristin Chenoweth and Raúl Esparza.

[40] Some of the steps Steel took in his efforts to save the company aroused controversy, including a contentious, but ultimately successful, contract negotiation with the labor unions representing the orchestra and the singers,[51] and the departure of the opera from Lincoln Center out of financial necessity.

[53] Notwithstanding artistic successes, record fundraising, and dramatic changes to the company's business model, the opera ultimately succumbed to bankruptcy.

[58] In an article in the New York Times, music critic Anthony Tommasini noted one of the reasons for the company's 2013 bankruptcy (as well as relating it to other failed arts organizations): In short, artistic excellence is not enough.

[61][62] Both the City Opera board and – unanimously – the creditors' committee (those owed money in the bankruptcy) preferred the bid of NYCO Renaissance, which was backed financially and chaired by Roy Niederhoffer, a hedge fund manager and accomplished amateur musician who had earlier served on the New York City Opera board, and who pledged more than $1 million of his own money to the effort, and raised at least $2.5 million.

[6][7] Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said he was pleased to approve the plan of "a beloved and important cultural institution," and that "It's been the participation of people who care greatly about the opera that's led to what I think is a very good result here today.

"[6] NYCO Renaissance presented Puccini's Tosca – using Adolfo Hohenstein's stage and costume design from the opera's premiere in 1900 in Rome – in January 2016 at the 1,100-seat Rose Theater.

On March 16, 2016, a new concert series at the Appel Room in Jazz at Lincoln Center was inaugurated with the premiere of David Hertzberg's "Sunday Morning".

[69] Third, the NYCO staged Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas June 22–26, 2016 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.

"[79] New York Classical Review wrote: "On this occasion, Pagliacci emerged considerably more moving than the recent Met production by David McVicar, mostly due to the Rose's increased intimacy.

It also didn't hurt that, for the role of Canio, the company snagged Francesco Anile ... [who] has the voice: a clear, expressive instrument that pleasantly "pings" above the orchestra, and equally, what appears to be a fountain of acting chops.

"[81] In January 2022,[82] NYCO produced the world premiere of Michael Korie and Ricky Ian Gordon's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis in co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.