Financial woes mean New York City Opera will almost certainly close

Shortly before New York City Opera put on what will most likely be its final performance on Saturday night, Julius Rudel, the maestro who helped build and lead the company in its heyday, sat in his Manhattan apartment and, surrounded by mementos from the troupe's glory days, expressed his dismay at its probable demise.

"I would not have thought in my wildest dreams," said Rudel, 92, "that I would outlive the opera company."

The walls of his apartment bear testament to the creation of a company that rose to ambitious heights. A framed programme from its very first season credits him for the job he landed there 70 years ago this month: Julius Rudel, répétiteur (a musician who assists at rehearsals). A sketch shows the diabolical costume for the title role in Boito's Mefistofele. Another shows the set of Pelleas et Melisande. Now Rudel is closely following the company's impending financial collapse.

"I think it's a real operatic tragedy," said Rudel, who led City Opera for 22 eventful years, conducting treasured performances with Beverly Sills and, on the company's first night at its new home in Lincoln Centre in 1966, a young Placido Domingo.

That sense of shock and dismay was palpable later on Saturday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the members of the company presented the final performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole.

Absent a last-minute gift of millions, it was expected to be the last performance City Opera ever gives. The opera's board voted last week to dissolve the company if it fails to raise the US$7 million needed to finish the current season by a deadline yesterday.

Nancy McAlhany, a first violinist who has been with the company for more than three decades, said that even after all the bad news in recent years, it was difficult to believe that the troupe would really close. "I'm having trouble grasping this," she said.

Bridget Hendrix, a soprano who started in the City Opera chorus three decades ago - her first role was as one of the cigarette-factory girls in Carmen - said that "the beauty of the company was that we were such a family".

"We spent 12 hours a day there between rehearsals and performance - we lived there," she recalled. "The fun that we have in the dressing room, that's going to be sorely missed."

Several veterans of the company said that they feared their fate was sealed when the troupe left its Lincoln Centre home in 2011 and drastically cut back on the number of performances that it gave each year.

After the curtain fell on Anna Nicole on Saturday night, Hendrix said, there were sobs in the dressing rooms.

Then the members of the chorus, and a few of the principals, gathered in an Italian restaurant for a closing-night party - and goodbyes. They celebrated a dancer's birthday with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday as only an opera company can give, with intricate harmonies and clarion high notes.

It may be the last time they sing together.