LuAnn de Lesseps

LuAnn de Lesseps, known as Countess LuAnn or The Countess born May 17, 1965 is an American television personality, recording artist, and former fashion model best known for her appearances on the Bravo show The Real Housewives of New York City. Her courtesy title comes from her previous marriage to Frenchman Alexandre de Lesseps, a descendant of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the architect of the Suez Canal.

Early life

She was born LuAnn Nadeau and grew up with six siblings in the small town of Berlin, Connecticut, where her father owned a construction company. She has said her father is of Algonquian descent and that her mother is French Canadian.

Personal life

In 1993 she married Alexandre de Lesseps, becoming his fourth wife. Together, they have two children, Victoria and Noel. They divorced in 2009 as a result of reports of infidelity by her husband. She announced that she would retain her married name.

Career

Lesseps was a licensed vocational nurse from Connecticut, as well as a Wilhelmina model.

She is one of the main cast members on Bravo's reality series, The Real Housewives of New York City. Lesseps wrote a book, Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair (published by Gotham) released April 16, 2009, and released her first record, "Money Can't Buy You Class" (through Ultra Records), on May 25, 2010. She released her second single, "Chic, C'est La Vie" almost immediately thereafter, also in May 2010.

Critical reception

The New York Post featured a negative online review of "Money Can't Buy You Class" titled "Money can't buy you class, but it can pay for a whole bunch of autotune.

In its first month on YouTube, the official video for "Chic, C'est La Vie", posted by Ultra Record's official YouTube account, received over 1,400 "likes" and 4,000 dislikes.

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Real Housewives of New York City

Real Housewives of New York City is an American reality television program on the Bravo cable TV network. A spin-off of the Bravo series The Real Housewives of Orange County, it is the second city featured in The Real Housewives of... franchise. While in production for Season 1, the show was tentatively titled Manhattan Moms. Every episode of the Real Housewives of New York City begins with the trademark opener of the The Real Housewives of... franchise, which features each woman with her name on-screen and family behind her.

Season 1, which premiered on March 4, 2008, starred Bethenny Frankel, LuAnn de Lesseps, Alex McCord, Ramona Singer, and Jill Zarin. Contrary to the series title, the women featured were not all actually housewives. Frankel was unmarried and had her own business; McCord, Singer, and Zarin all had jobs outside the home; and Singer owned her own business.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon was added to the cast for Season 2, which premiered on February 17, 2009.

With the exception of Frankel, the cast appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in February 2010 to promote the series' third season, which premiered on March 4, 2010. Event planner Jennifer Gilbert joined the cast but was not featured as one of the housewives in the show's trademark open. Her appearances were extremely limited and her own footage was never shown because she arguably did not create enough drama and was not involved with the central conflict of the show. However, Sonja Morgan joined the cast in the middle of Season 3 as The Real Housewives of New York City's seventh housewife. The Season 3 reunion show, filmed on May 26, 2010, aired as a three-part special.

Bethenny Frankel's spinoff, Bethenny Getting Married?, premeired on June 10, 2010 and features appearances by former housemates Ramona Singer and Alex McCord. On August 31, 2010, Frankel made an official announcement that she would not be returning to the Real Housewives of New York City series for its fourth season.

In September 2010, Season 4 began filming with Cindy Barshop as the series' newest "housewife". Filming finished, however, only two weeks before February 15, 2011 - the season's slated premiere date. Not wanting to miss anything, Bravo pushed the Season 4 premiere back until April 7, 2011 and instead premiered The Real Housewives of Miami on February 15, 2011.

Current Housewives

"To a certain group of people in New York, status is everything." (Season 1 - 3)

"I've always had opinions, but now people know it." (Season 4 - present)

Alex McCord, (born October 1, 1973; Washington, D.C.) has lived in New York City since 1996. She was raised in Kansas, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and attended Northwestern University but never graduated. McCord was a graphic designer for over nine years.

McCord is married to Simon van Kempen, who was the General Manager of Hotel Chandler in New York City throughout the first three seasons, but has since left to start his own social media business within the hotel sector. As of 2010, she and van Kempen reside in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. They have two boys together, Francois and Johan, who were named for Simon's late father, Francois Johan Walter van Kempen.

In March 2009, she was laid off from her job in visual merchandising for Limited Brands/Victoria’s Secret.

McCord and her husband have written a book together titled Little Kids, Big City, which was released in spring 2010.

LuAnn de Lesseps

Main article: LuAnn de Lesseps

(Season 1 - present)

"I never feel guilty about being privileged." (Season 1 - 3)

"I thought I had it good before, but I'm just getting started." (Season 4 - present)

LuAnn de Lesseps née Nadeau (born May 17, 1965 in Berlin CT, an industrial town in the center of the state) was born to a concrete manufacturer (whose Berlin, CT firm, Nadeau Concrete, is  still owned by two of her brothers), but she quickly wanted to leave her working class life behind. She formerly modeled with Wilhelmina Models and is an LPN. She is of Algonquin and French descent. and was the fourth wife of "Count" Alexandre de Lesseps, a descendant of Ferdinand de Lesseps of the Suez Canal family. They have two children, Victoria and Noel. De Lesseps and her husband were divorced in 2010 amid reports of infidelity and drug and alcohol abuse by both parties.

De Lesseps is listed as the author of a book released in 2009 titled Class With The Countess, although, as she admitted during the filming of Season 2 when Diane Reverand appeared on the show, Reverand actually wrote the book. In April 2010, de Lesseps released a music single titled "Money Can't Buy You Class". She released her second single, "Chic, C'est La Vie" in May 2010.

Jill Zarin

(Season 1 - present)

"I run with a fabulous circle of people." (Season 1 - 3)

"Good or bad I know who I am...and I own it." (Season 4 - present)

Jill Zarin (born 30 November 1963; Woodmere, New York (a NYC suburb and part of the affluent Five Towns of Long Island's South Shore in Nassau County) is married to Bobby Zarin, who owns Zarin Fabric Warehouse and Home Furnishings, a home furnishing and fabric store on Manhattan's Lower East Side started by his father. Zarin, who attended Simmons College, does marketing for her husband's store and holds a real estate license. She currently lives on the Upper East Side with her husband and daughter, Allyson, from a previous marriage.

The Zarins' summer home in the Hamptons, featured on the show, was sold in 2009.

Ramona Singer

(Season 1 - present)

"I like making my own money, I find that an aphrodisiac." (Season 1 - 3)

"If people can't handle the truth, it's really not my problem." (Season 4 - present)

Ramona Singer (born November 18, 1956 in Rhinebeck, NY, about 100 miles north of NYC) lives in Manhattan with her husband Mario and their teenage daughter, Avery. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Singer began her career as a buyer for Macy's and then moved into the wholesale clothing business with French Connection and Calvin Klein. She is the owner of RMS Fashions, a company that purchases excess goods from clothing manufacturers and resells them to discount stores. (In the apparel industry, Ramona is known as a jobber - a middleman to whom manufacturers sell their surplus fabric.)

She developed her own line of jewelry, which is sold through the Home Shopping Network (HSN), and she markets the line herself. She also developed and launched a skin care line, TruRenewal, in 2009. Further, Season 4 indicates that Singer recently launched her own brand of Pinot grigio.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon

(Season 2 - present)

"I've created a great life and I love living it" (Season 2 - 3)

"I'm living the American dream one mistake at a time" (Season 4 - present)

Kelly Killoren Bensimon (born May 1, 1968; Rockford, IL) is a former model, equestrian, jewelry designer, and magazine editor. She has two daughters, Sea and Thaddeus "Teddy", whom she had with her ex-husband, photographer Gilles Bensimon.

She is the author of three books published by Assouline: In the Spirit of the Hamptons, American Style, and The Bikini Book (2005). She also has a jewelry line, which she has been selling for the last six years. She appears on many morning shows talking about fashion and style.

Sonja Morgan

(mid-Season 3 - present)

"I have a taste for luxury, and luxury has a taste for me." (Season 3 - present)

Sonja Morgan (born November 25, 1963 in Albany, NY as Sonja Tremont) is the ex-wife of John Morgan. John, 33 years her senior, is one of five children of Henry S. Morgan (a great-grandson of J. Pierpont Morgan) and Catherine Adams (a great-great-granddaughter of John Adams, the second President of the United States). Sonja and John have a daughter together. Prior to getting married, Sonja was hostess/phone receptionist at an Italian restaurant in New York City called San Pietro (located at Madison Ave. and 54th St.)

According to the New York Post, Morgan agreed to finance a motion picture in 2006 but backed out at the last minute because she had just been served with divorce papers. As a result, a federal jury in California awarded the production company $7.06 million in damages in September 2009.

According to the New York Daily News, Morgan filed for bankruptcy in November 2010 (while Season 4 was filming), claiming to be $19.8 million in debt.

Morgan is currently working on a screenplay that she describes as "a Candace Bushnell society novel."

Cindy Barshop

(Season 4 - present )

"I have everything I've ever wanted, and it's all on my own terms." (Season 4 - present)

Cindy Barshop is the owner of Completely Bare, a chain of hair-removal spas. She previously worked in telecommunications for IBM. She opened her first spa in New York City in 1998. A single mother, Barshop has 15-month-old twin girls, Jessie and Zoe, whom she chose to have on her own. She is close to her brother Howie, who also sometimes appears on the show. She is from Long Island, NY.

Former Housewives

Bethenny Frankel (born November 4, 1970; Port Washington, Long Island, NY, where she grew up), daughter of Bernadette Parisella and the late thoroughbred race horse trainer and horse racing hall-of-famer Robert Frankel, is a natural foods chef. She graduated from Pine Crest School (a high school in Boca Raton, Florida) and attended New York University (but did not graduate) and The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York. She created BethennyBakes, a company that offered a line of wheat, egg and dairy-free baked goods that was carried in hundreds of retail outlets. BethennyBakes ceased production in 2010 when Frankel launched the Skinnygirl brand, the flagship product of which is the Skinnygirl Margarita, a premixed drink lower in calories than a traditional margarita. On March 28, 2010, Frankel married Jason Hoppy at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. She and Hoppy now star in Bravo TV's spinoff series, Bethenny Ever After..., which premiered on June 10, 2010. On May 8, 2010, Bethenny gave birth to a baby girl, Bryn, who weighed approximately 4 lbs, 13 ounces at birth.

She was a regular contributor to NBC's coverage of the 2009 Kentucky Derby and 2009 Preakness Stakes, and Bravo's coverage of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks. Before she appeared in The Real Housewives of New York City, Frankel starred in the 1994 movie Hollywood Hills 90028 and acted in the 1995 movie Wish Me Luck. In 2005, Frankel was a contestant and the first runner-up on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.

In 2009, Frankel posed nude for animal rights group PETA's anti-fur campaign; her photo was featured on a billboard in Times Square.

Frankel is the author of Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinnygirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting (2009), a New York Times Best Seller in the Paperback Advice & Misc. List category. She has since authored The Skinnygirl Dish, The Skinnygirl Rules, and released an exercise DVD, Body by Bethenny. Frankel’s fourth book, A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life, was published on Touchstone March 22, 2011,  and entered the New York Times Best Seller List in the Hardcover Advice & Misc. List category on April 10, 2011.

Real Housewives of New York City: Who's an Alcoholic

After Monday's epic showdown on "The Real Housewives of New York Reunion Part 2" everyone was asking which of the ladies would be invited back for another season and who would be shown the door.

“No one knows at the moment who is in or out, but the second the contracts go to our representatives we all email and call each other immediately. So if someone does not get a letter we know within hours,” one Housewife tells me. "All the cast will now be glued to their iPhones as they wait for the call from Bravo on whether they are being invited back."

The ladies should be receiving their letters of do or die very soon, as producers have indicated they hope to be back in production for the 5th season by Labor Day. But if a Housewife does not receive a letter, that doesn't mean she's stuck with a pink slip. Instead, the ladies who do not receive an offer are merely "not invited back."

“What’s happened with other casts in the franchise is offers go out to the women they want and those [they] don’t do not hear a word," two of the ladies explain. "Technically no one gets fired they are just not invited back.”

Although this has never happened to any of the ladies of the New York cast (it has happened in Atlanta, Orange County and New Jersey), this year even the cast members of New York expect a shake-up. The only New York departure to date has been Bethenny Frankel, who left the show to collect $120 million in Skinnygirl Margarita satchels of gold.

During the reunion, [Ramona was] hitting below the belt. I tried to be a friend to Ramona. And I thought that she was acting a little bit erratic, more so than before. I was trying to help her and point it out," JIll said.

"A lot of times people who have problems don't see it themselves. That's why there are interventions ... I really wanted to try to help her. And instead she tried to turn it around on me."

When the topic of alcohol – particularly, Ramona's Pinot Grigio – came up at the reunion, Ramona responded to Jill's accusation that her drinking sets a bad example.

"Jill, I really respect you. I think you're a fabulous woman," said Ramona. "I know at times you had problems. You went to AA. You had an alcoholic problem. Just because you did doesn't mean I do."

Jill, who denied she ever had a drinking problem, believes outing someone about going to Alcoholics Anonymous is unacceptable. "Whether it is true or not, is irrelevant," says Jill, who claims she received a letter from a woman who's been trying to get her daughter to seek help for addiction.

"The mother tells me the daughter is scared to go in the program because she's worried that a friend of hers might out her," Jill says. "It's destructive to people and the damage that Ramona caused is going to prevent people from getting help."

In fact, according to Jill, Ramona should apologize. "She should really retract that," she says, "and try to figure out how to go back out there and say, 'I'm sorry.

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Stocks drop as economic worries resurface‎

NEW YORK— The stock market stumbled again Tuesday and is on pace for its longest losing streak in two years.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped below 12,000 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost nearly all of its gains for the year by midday.

Even as the debt-ceiling bill passed in the Senate, all three major indexes added to their losses as investors reacted to more signs of weakness in the U.S. economy and poor corporate earnings from several big companies.

The Commerce Department reported that consumers cut spending in June by the biggest amount in nearly two years. Analysts had predicted a slight increase. Incomes also rose by the smallest amount since September, reflecting a weak job market. The report comes a day after a weak manufacturing report and last Friday's report that in the first half of the year the economy grew at its slowest pace since the recession ended in June 2009.

The S&P 500 fell 20 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,267 in afternoon trading. It is now up only 0.7 percent for the year.

The Dow lost 157 points, or 1.3 percent, to 11,976. The Nasdaq composite fell 44, or 1.6 percent, to 2,701.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. dropped nearly 4 percent after the agricultural conglomerate said that it missed Wall Street's profit forecasts. And upper-end retailer Coach Inc. lost 6 percent after the company said margins declined, cutting into profits. With the company already making less from each purchase, if consumers cut back further, companies with lower margins stand to be hurt more than others.

The consumer spending pullback was the latest sign that the U.S. economy may be slowing. On Monday an early stock rally over relief that the House had passed a debt limit compromise was halted by a report that U.S. manufacturing barely grew last month, a much weaker showing than analysts had expected.

Many economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have said the U.S. economy would gain momentum in the second half of the year as gas prices fall and Japan's factories recover from the earthquake disaster in March. Slow U.S. manufacturing growth, a weak job market and concerns about spending cuts in the debt deal have cast doubt on those predictions.

The growth of China's and India economies have also slowed recently after their respective central banks raised interest rates. American corporations have counted on increasing profits in China as a way to make up for slower revenue growth in the U.S. Companies in the S&P 500 index are expected to make nearly half of their profits overseas in 2011.

"The market is starting to wonder where the growth is going to come from," said Nick Kalivas, a vice president of financial research at MF Global. "It hasn't hit the panic button yet, but that's where we're drifting."

The latest signs of economic weakness pushed government debt prices higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury again fell to a new low for the year of 2.68 percent from 2.75 percent Monday. Yields fall when bond prices rise. Gold, another asset investors buy when they're worried about the direction of the economy, gained 1.2 percent to $1,641 an ounce.

Stocks took a wild ride Monday, with the Dow finishing lower for the 7th straight session. A report showing poor manufacturing activity quickly deflated the optimism earlier in Monday's session. Stocks ended just below the break even line.

Economy: The Monday's dour manufacturing report came on the heels of last week's GDP report, that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of just 1.3% in the second quarter. More disturbingly, the first-quarter reading was revised down to 0.4%.

Investors will get a number of fresh data points on the economy this week, with the most important coming Friday in the July jobs report.

The U.S. economy is expected to have created 84,000 jobs last month, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com. In June, the economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 9.2%.

Companies: Shares of NYSE Euronext (NYX, Fortune 500), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, fell 3.3% in mid-daytrading. The stock exchange operator posted a 19% drop in second-quarter profit from a year ago, due in part to costs associated with its Deutsche Boerse merger.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) said its July auto sales rose 7.6%, which was mostly in line with analysts' expectations. Shares were down 2%.

Meanwhile Ford (F, Fortune 500) posted a 8.9% increase in its July sales. While that was better than expected, shares were down 2.7%.

Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500)'s stock slid 3%, after the Dow component and pharmaceutical maker posted earnings and sales that slightly beat expectations, but fell from a year earlier.

Rough justice in New York, cozy cops in London

NEW YORK — If the New York sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn ever goes to trial, much will doubtless be made of his accuser’s background. But what about his?

Prosecutors have already hinted they might like to peer into the former International Monetary Fund leader’s past. At his first court appearance, a prosecutor made a point of noting reports of “similar” conduct abroad — an apparent reference to the French writer who has now brought a criminal complaint in Paris about an attempted rape she says she suffered at Strauss-Kahn’s hands in 2003.

But given New York law, legal experts say it could be knotty, but not impossible, for prosecutors to try to introduce any allegations beyond the actual attempted rape and other charges stemming from Strauss-Kahn’s May encounter in May with a Manhattan hotel maid.

For now, it’s far from clear that the case will get to that point. But if it does, it could become a high-profile proving ground for a principle enshrined in a more than century-old case that was a sensation in its own right and yielded a landmark ruling.

The DSK case is different but the New York authorities by contrast showed little compunction about arresting someone who was extremely powerful and well-connected and charging him. He was held on remand in Rikers Island, and then on bail at home before released on his own recognisance.

One of the criticisms of the New York authorities was that Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, is an elected official. Some critics in France argued that this made him prone to populism rather than being motivated by justice.

There are fair criticisms of the behaviour of elected attorneys and attorneys-general in the US. In this case, however, his status may have made Mr Vance more confident about upsetting the powerful, compared with the supine attitude of the Met.

All in all, the cosiness of the relationship between the police, politicians and the media in the UK hardly sets a salutary example.

Bank of NY Mellon 2Q profit beats expectations

State Street Corp and Bank of New York Mellon , two of the world's biggest custody banks, each reported stronger second-quarter earnings as new demand for their products boosted revenue.

New York-based Bank of New York Mellon said on Tuesday net income climbed to 12 percent to $735 million while Boston-based State Street's earnings rose 19 percent to $513 million.

Each company earned more in investment management fees for overseeing trillions in assets for pension funds and other large clients. Bank of New York Mellon saw a 14 percent gain while State Street reported a 24 percent gain.

Some of the increase in fees was fueled by acquisitions.

Bank of New York Mellon last year inked a deal to buy PNC Financial Services Group Inc.'s global-investment services business while State Street acquired the Bank of Ireland's asset management business in January.

State Street reported a 15 percent gain in assets under management to $2.1 trillion. Bank of New York reported a 22 percent gain to $1.3 trillion.

The results were hurt by a 21 percent increase in noninterest expenses, which rose to $2.69 billion from $2.22 billion. The bank attributed that increase primarily to costs from acquisitions and higher legal expenses. The company acquired Global Investment Servicing last July and BHF Asset Servicing GmbH in August. With the acquisitions, the bank's employee total rose to 48,900 from 42,700 a year ago.

Nonperforming assets fell to $351 million from $406 million in the same period last year. About two-thirds of the total involved residential mortgages. There was no provision for credit losses in the latest quarter, compared with a charge of $20 million in last year's quarter.

Bank of New York Mellon also said Tuesday that its board declared a quarterly stock dividend of 13 cents per share. The cash dividend is payable on Aug. 9 to shareholders of record as of July 29.

Retired players join NFL talks Tuesday in New York

Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller and lawyers for retired NFL players are meeting with representatives of owners and current players at a New York law firm for talks aimed at ending the lockout.

The court-appointed mediator, U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, is also at Tuesday's session, as the sides attempt to close a deal to resolve the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987.

Judge Arthur Boylan, the court-appointed mediator in the NFL labor talks, arrives to the meetings in New York, Monday, July 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Owners are set to be in Atlanta on Thursday, when they could ratify a new agreement — if there is one in place. Executives from all 32 teams then would be briefed there Thursday and Friday on how the terms would affect league business.

Still, legal maneuvers continued in case of an unlikely collapse in negotiations.

In what the players said was strictly a procedural move, they filed for a motion of summary judgment with the district court in Minneapolis, asking that the owners’ lockout be declared illegal under antitrust law and that the court declare that the N.F.L. had breached player contracts for 2011.

Atallah said that the move was made only because Monday was the deadline for such a filing and the players had to protect their position in case a settlement was not reached.

New York City Opera

New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company and the second largest opera company, after the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City. The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and providing a home for American singers and composers. In addition to producing a busy opera schedule, the company has extensive education and outreach programs, offering arts-in-education programs to 4,000 students in over thirty schools. The company has been a part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts since 1966, however plans announced in May 2011 for the financially troubled company's future include a proposal to leave Lincoln Center and perform in various locations throughout the city. 

During its more than sixty year long history, the NYCO has helped launch the careers of many great opera singers including, Sherrill Milnes, Plácido Domingo, Carol Vaness, José Carreras, Renée Fleming, Jerry Hadley, Catherine Malfitano, Bejun Mehta, Samuel Ramey, Gianna Rolandi, and Beverly Sills, the latter of whom served as the company's director from 1979-1989. Internationally acclaimed American singers who still call NYCO home include David Daniels, Mark Delavan, Mary Dunleavy, Lauren Flanigan, Elizabeth Futral, and Carl Tanner.

NYCO similarly champions the work of American composers; approximately one-third of its repertoire has traditionally been American opera. The company's American repertoire ranges from established works (e.g., Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe, Carlisle Floyd's Susannah and Leonard Bernstein's Candide) to new works (e.g., Rachel Portman's The Little Prince and Mark Adamo's Little Women). NYCO's commitment to the future of American opera is demonstrated in its annual series, Vox, Contemporary Opera Lab, in which operas-in-progress are showcased, giving composers a chance to hear their work performed by professional singers and orchestra. The company also occasionally produces musicals and operettas such as works by Stephen Sondheim and Gilbert & Sullivan.

2008 to Present

A note of uncertainty about the company's future emerged in November 2008, when Gérard Mortier, who was scheduled to begin his first official season as General and Artistic Director of the company in 2009, abruptly resigned. The company announced that "The economic climate in which we find ourselves today has caused us both to reconsider proceeding with our plans." Mortier had reportedly been promised a $60 million annual budget, which was cut to $36 million due to the economic climate. Michael Kaiser was appointed to advise the board on a turnaround strategy, including the recruitment of a new general director.

In January 2009, the company announced the appointment of George Steel as general manager and artistic director, effective 1 February 2009. The David H. Koch Theater (previously known as the New York State Theater) underwent major renovations during the 2008-2009 season. During the construction the company did not stage opera in its home at Lincoln Center. Instead, New York City Opera presented a concert version of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra at Carnegie Hall in January 2009, as well as other concerts and programs around the city, and it continued to make classroom presentations in New York City's public schools. The company presented three concerts at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 2009, I'm On My Way: Black History at City Opera, One Fine Day: A Tribute to Camilla Williams and a 60th Anniversary concert production of William Grant Still's Troubled Island. In June 2009 Bloomberg reported that the company had incurred a $11 million deficit for the year ending June 2008. Revenue fell 23 percent to $32.9 million, expenses rose 11 percent to $44.2 million.

2009-2010 season

In November 2009, under the leadership of George Steel, the company returned with an opening night program called American Voices consisting of excerpts from American opera, a revival of Hugo Weisgall's Esther, and a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni directed by Christopher Alden. The spring season opened in March 2010 and included Emmanuel Chabrier 's L'étoile directed by Mark Lamos and Handel's Partenope directed by Andrew Chown; original production directed by Francisco Negrin. The company also continues to collaborate with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Opera Noire of New York to highlight the role of opera in African-American history including the programs Opera at the Schomburg, A Tribute to Robert McFerrin, and X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X in February - May. In 2010 New York City Opera's VOX Contemporary Opera Lab featured new works of emerging and established composers at NYU in late April.  The 2010-2011 season collaboration with the Schomburg Center includes "A Tribute to Betty Allen" in February and a concert version of Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha, in June 2011.

2010-2011 season

Amongst the rarely performed or more unusual operas, New York City Opera announced the 2010-2011 season which will include a new production of Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place directed by Christopher Alden, Richard Strauss's Intermezzo directed by Leon Major, with a new production called Monodramas which is composed of John Zorn's La Machine de l’être, Arnold Schoenberg's Erwartung, and Morton Feldman's Neither. New York City Opera is also staging Séance on a Wet Afternoon, the first opera of Stephen Schwartz, veteran of Broadway musicals including Godspell, Pippin and Wicked.

In addition, the company will feature concert performances including An Evening With Christine Brewer, Lucky To Be Me: The Music of Leonard Bernstein, John Zorn & Friends (with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Mike Patton, Marc Ribot, Dave Douglas and Uri Caine), a family opera concert of Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are with a libretto by Maurice Sendak and Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz with Kristin Chenoweth and Raúl Esparza.

Vox,Contemporary Opera Lab

Vox, Contemporary Opera Lab (formerly known as Vox: Showcasing American Composers) is an annual concert series dedicated to the development of contemporary American operas. Founded by New York City Opera in 1999, the festival offers composers and librettists the opportunity to hear excerpts of their works performed with professional singers and musicians. Up to twelve excerpts of previously un-produced operas are performed at each festival. Many of the operas that have been presented at Vox have gone on to be presented in full production by New York City Opera and various other opera companies, including Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner. Since 2006, the Vox performances have been presented at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

World premieres at the New York City Opera

William Grant Still's Troubled Island (1949)

David Tamkin's The Dybbuk (1951)

Aaron Copland's The Tender Land (1954)

Nevit Kodallı's Van Gogh (1957)

Mark Bucci's Tale for a Deaf Ear (1958, first professional production)

Robert Kurka's The Good Soldier Schweik (1958)

Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author (1959)

Norman Dello Joio's The Triumph of St. Joan (1959, the premiere of the third version)

Robert Ward's He Who Gets Slapped (1959)

Douglas Moore’s The Wings of the Dove (1961)

Robert Ward's The Crucible (1961)

Abraham Ellstein's The Golem (1962)

Carlisle Floyd's The Passion of Jonathan Wade (1962)

Jerome Moross' Gentlemen, Be Seated! (1963)

Lee Hoiby's Natalia Petrovna (1964)

Jack Beeson's Lizzie Borden (1965)

Ned Rorem's Miss Julie (1965)

Vittorio Giannini's The Servant of Two Masters (1967)

Hugo Weisgall's Nine Rivers from Jordan (1968)

Gian Carlo Menotti's The Most Important Man (1971)

Thea Musgrave's The Voice of Ariadne (1977)

Leon Kirchner's Lilly (1977)

Dominick Argento's Miss Havisham's Fire (1979)

Stanley Silverman's Madame Adare (1980)

Thomas Pasatieri's Before Breakfast (1980)

Jan Bach's The Student from Salamanca (1980)

Leonard Bernstein's Candide (operetta) (Opera House Version) (1982)

Anthony Davis’s X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986, first staged production)

Jay Riese's Rasputin (1988)

Hugo Weisgall's Esther (1993)

Ezra Laderman's Marilyn (1993)

Lukas Foss's Griffelkin (1993, premiere of revised version)

Deborah Drattell's Lilith (2001, first staged production)

Charles Wuorinen's Haroun and the Sea of Stories (2004)