Paul Kellogg to Quit as Head of City Opera

Paul Kellogg said yesterday that he would retire as general and artistic director of the New York City Opera at the end of next season, in 2007, citing his age and the burdens of trying to attract new funds and new audiences.

Mr. Kellogg, 68, is in his 10th season at the opera. He will also retire next year as director of the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y., which he has led since 1979.

"It's been a wonderfully exciting and satisfying time, and I've had the chance to meet extraordinary people, but it's mostly a 15-hour-day, seven-days-a-week job that is probably better suited to someone 45 years old," he said in a statement released by City Opera.

In an interview, Mr. Kellogg said the constant work needed to entice the young and neophytes to opera was discouraging, though also fulfilling, taking note of the popularity of the house's "Opera for All" low-cost events last week.

He also said that the struggle to win ever-dwindling support from corporations and foundations was a full-time job in itself. Leaving in two years will give the company time to search for a replacement, he said.

On the issue of a new home for City Opera, Mr. Kellogg said he was optimistic about the prospects of having one built near Lincoln Center but declined to comment in detail.

"I would say that our finally getting a new theater is more likely than not," he said in the statement.

A spokeswoman for City Opera, Susan Woelzl, said Mr. Kellogg would not address any other questions.

Ms. Woelzl confirmed that talks were continuing about efforts to build a new City Opera house on the site of the former American Red Cross New York headquarters. She declined to elaborate, although architectural plans have been drawn up. The Red Cross site is on Amsterdam Avenue, between 66th and 67th Streets.

Officials of the company; the New York City Department of City Planning; the developer who owns the site, A.&R. Kalimian Realty; and the architect Christian de Portzamparc met last year to discuss the matter.

The opera had wanted to move to ground zero but was rejected as a cultural constituent there by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. That was a major blow to City Opera at the time, as Mr. Kellogg acknowledged in the interview. But given recent controversies over the development of a ground zero cultural center, he said, the rejection may have been for the best.

Since Mr. Kellogg took over at City Opera, it has introduced 62 new productions, including less frequently performed Baroque operas and a number of premieres by American composers. Mr. Kellogg also introduced Vox: Showcasing American Composers, a festival that presents orchestral readings of new operas.