Newsday (Suffolk Edition) du lieu suivant : Melville, New York • 95

a- Center When City Center opened 34 years ago at a former Shriners temple left it offered culture for the masses Its two surviving units now occupy Lincoln Center's State Theater where people like Board Chairman John Samuels 3d and singer Beverly Sills insets are trying to make the idea still work -vj1 its usefulness It's now totally trans- Company the New York' City Theatre Company outlived If such institutions were compiled into a cultural directory then should someone perhaps add "obsolete" after the City Center entry? John Samuels 3d chairman of the board of the City Center of Music and Drama Inc said recently that the concept is being redefined A self-made millionaire who spends weekends on his formerly the Junius Morgan on West Island in Glen Cove Samuels is trying to apply his fine art of bootstrapping to the components of City Center Samuels elected chairman of the board of the Ci said itv Center of Music and Drama Inc in 1975 is lid to be as generous with his time as with his New York City Symphony Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo The Acting Company the City Center Jof-frey Ballet Alvin Ailey City Center Dance Theater New York City Center Ballet and New York City Center Opera More than half no longer exist Now 34 years later the dream has dissolved into a confusing morass of buildings concepts boards companies and economic perils: The City Center building has been taken over by the 55th Street Dance Theater Foundation a consortium of dance the Jofirey Ballet Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Eliot Feld which rents the city-owned building from the City Center of Music and Drama Inc The City Center of Music and Drama Inc is still the legal entity which acts as a parent company and accounting firm to the City Ballet and City Opera but it no longer offers the umbrella protection of a rich uncle to its original and diverse member companies It has instead cut them loose or let them die in order to concentrate on the survival of the City Ballet and City Opera The City Ballet and City Opera ha' tent lost their i for economic stal York State Theater at Lincoln Center where they moved in the late The growing pains of those and other companies have been detailed in a book "From the Last by Jean Dalrymple one of the early executives in the City Center and now a producer and theatrical afraid that not one aiiet ana Uity upera nave to an ex- nulist image and are struggling ty in the more glamorous New By Susan Soper In the lexicon of Manhattan institutions "City has become a synonym for culture for the high-quality opera drama dance and music all with modest price tags But City Center the first and for 20 years largest cultural concentration has undergone a drastic retrenchment in recent years Now the term "City might mean a building on West 55th Street a non-profit corporation a dance foundation that rents the building or the two foremost survivors of City foundation: the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet now far removed in more ways than one from their West 55th Street origins The City Center concept is a victim of for one thing economy And not even the two moat successful remnants of that concept can escape the reality of increasing costs and deareasing contributions Each year it seems brings a new round of financial panic and most recently for the City Op-erajthe threat of a cancelled season The City Center of Music and Drama Inc was bom in 1943 at the old Mecca Temple on West 55th Street Spiritual impetus came from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia the music-loving son of a bandleader City Council President Newbold Morris and Morton Baum who served on the Metropolitan Opera Association finance committee On birthday in December of that year City Center had a gala opening but at $1 for top ticket prices not an extravagant one It also had the philosophical and financial support of labor lead- philosophical and financial support of labor lead- money when it comes to City Center affairs Although no one will say exactly how much Samuels has contributed it reportedly has totaled more than $200000 each to the ballet and opera companies He stepped in as the Ford Foundation was helping to bail out the City Ballet and the City Opera on condition that they separata their accounts At that time the companies shared one balance sheet that time the companies shared one balance sheet tf and funds were placed in the same pot Ford offi- cials wanted a more specific accounting of where their grants were spent Vie Also when Samuels came aboard the 41-member City Center board of governors was being restructured to the 12-member board which now oversees the separate ballet and opera boards There is now some overlapping so that several members of the governing board also sit on the opera or ballet board Samuels for instance is chairman of all three boards And if he has been as one critic said about improving the financial structures of the companies he has at least most observers agree reinforced and steadied them "I'm very anxious to straighten them Sam- on Page 23 person in maybe one in realizes that the ers prominent New Yorkers Ulented artists and ftew yorfc city Opera and the New York City Bal-public servants let are City Center She recently An abundance of cultural offerings followed as companies were created for or merged into City Center At various times during the next 25 years they included the City Center Gilbert Sullivan Company the New York City Center Light Opera said "Now my dear there is no City Center except the ballet ana the Another long-time observer of culture said too bad City Center was once the largest cultural center in the world and at least in a philosophical sense its birthplace just iziiL AkXsi JL.