By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 12 March 2007]

THE announcement late last month could not have been more stunning.

Gerard Mortier, the controversial Flemish-Belgian director of major European opera houses and music festivals, a passionate and intellectually voracious provocateur, will become the general manager and artistic director of the New York City Opera starting in 2009. Mr. Mortier? Running the “people’s opera,” as Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia affectionately dubbed the company at its inauguration in 1944?