Fat Lady Sings: NYC Opera Going Bankrupt

Didn't raise the $7 million it needed

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Stephanie Berger / Courtesy of the Brooklyn Academy of Music

From left: Brett Azar, Sarah Joy Miller as Anna Nicole Smith and Henry Akinsanya in a Scene from "Anna Nicole" composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House on Sept. 15, 2013.

The New York City Opera — which recently produced an Anna Nicole Smith opera biopic — is preparing to file for bankruptcy this week.

The 70-year-old company raised only $1.5 million of the $7 million it said it needed by the end of September to continue operating, the Associated Press reports. An attempt to raise $1 million on the all-or-nothing online fundraising website Kickstarter netted only about $300,000.

“New York City Opera did not achieve the goal of its emergency appeal,” spokeswoman Risa B. Heller said in a statement Tuesday. “Today, the board and management will begin the necessary financial and operational steps to wind down the company including initiating the Chapter 11 process.”

[AP]