NYC Opera Cancels Season

The New York City Opera will forego its regular season while renovations are under way at Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre.

The NYCO will instead perform 90-minute concerts of selected operas related to its 2009-10 season, which will be announced some time in May.

Renovations to the theatre, which is also home to the New York City Ballet, include an enlarged orchestra pit with a mechanical lift, state-of-the-art sound and lighting and new audiovisual and media capability at an estimated cost of $40 million, according to the opera company’s Web site.

The construction is scheduled to begin this summer and is expected to take about five months.