3 PRODUCTIONS, 13 PERFORMANCES : N.Y. CITY OPERA SET AT ARTS CENTER IN 1987

The New York City Opera will stage three productions in January, 1987, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center--the first officially announced attraction for the Center’s opening season, Center and opera company officials announced Monday.

The 13-performance run was confirmed at a press conference in Costa Mesa by Beverly Sills, the company’s general director, and Thomas Kendrick, Center executive director.

The Center’s $70.7-million main-theater phase which includes the 3,000-seat multipurpose theater, is set to open in October, 1986.

To be presented are Bizet’s “Carmen” (Jan. 13, 15 and 17), directed by Frank Corsaro with Victoria Vergara in the lead role; Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” (Jan. 14, 16 and 18), directed by Corsaro, and Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide,” Jan 20-25, staged by Harold Prince. All are part of the New York City Opera’s current repertoire.

Timothy Strader, Center board president, said the New York City Opera will “bring artistic reality to Orange County’s dreams of offering cultural enrichment and fulfillment.”

Sills confirmed that her company still “hopes for a long-term relationship” with the Orange County Center, but said it was “too early” to announce whether the company is to make the Center its West Coast base.

“Certainly, we would love to. People obviously want us here,” Sills said, adding that the Orange County appearance will be the only West Coast run in 1986-87. “That (exclusive appearance) is part of our agreement with the Orange County people,” she said.

The company has not played in Los Angeles since 1982, when the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Assn. severed ties with the company after 16 seasons at the Los Angeles complex.

Strader said the New York City Opera run will be financed by the Center. He said fund-raising for the event has been launched, but he declined to give cost estimates, saying such figures “have yet to be finalized.”

Negotiations were announced 10 months ago in Costa Mesa by Sills and the then Center executive director, Len Bedsow. But final action on a proposed pact, Sills said Monday, was delayed in large part due to Bedsow’s lame-duck status.

(Bedsow announced his retirement in June, 1984, and vacated his post last February. Kendrick’s appointment was announced in May, but he did not assume the post until September. He is the former director of operations at the Kennedy Center in Washington.)

“Len’s position was interim. He couldn’t finalize anything. And, yes, I’ve known Tom (Kendrick) from ‘way back at the Kennedy,’ ” Sills said.

Originally, talks were focused on a four- and six-week season in January-February, 1987. “But this shorter engagement is a wiser move. We have to test the area here; all of us have got to get to know each other. It’s a situation where you have to walk first, before you run.”

Said Kendrick: “Beverly Sills and her magnificent company is bringing the promise of national attention for this new complex. Beverly Sills is opera in this country.”

Kendrick said negotiations are continuing for a three-production engagement in early 1987 to be presented by Opera Pacific of Orange County. The projected Opera Pacific run, to include a production of Puccini’s “La Boheme” in early April, directed by Gian Carlo Menotti, is to be held after the New York City Opera run.