November 5, 2012
Hundreds
of boxes of New York City Opera’s musical library and archives were
submerged in water until last Thursday, when the basement in which they
were stored on 75 Broad Street in lower Manhattan was finally
drained. Until the items are “freeze dried” in a special process to stop
the ink from bleeding, their exact nature remains unclear, although
scores marked by the likes of Julius Rudel and Erich Leinsdorf were
among the casualties, as well as Playbills.
General Manager and Artistic Director George Steel tells The Wall Street Journal, “I do not know what exactly was in the boxes.” He says he took a few marked “Beverly Sills” to higher ground in advance of the storm.
Hundreds
of boxes of New York City Opera’s musical library and archives were
submerged in water until last Thursday, when the basement in which they
were stored on 75 Broad Street in lower Manhattan was finally
drained. Until the items are “freeze dried” in a special process to stop
the ink from bleeding, their exact nature remains unclear, although
scores marked by the likes of Julius Rudel and Erich Leinsdorf were
among the casualties, as well as Playbills.General Manager and Artistic Director George Steel tells The Wall Street Journal, “I do not know what exactly was in the boxes.” He says he took a few marked “Beverly Sills” to higher ground in advance of the storm.
“When the basement water has been fully drained, the materials
will be transferred to the care of Rapid Refile, a document-reprocessing
company based in Allentown, Pa.,” Steel tells The Journal. “There,
they will be blast frozen, which stops the bleeding of ink and
microbial growth. Another step turns the fine ice crystals directly into
a gas, so the paper is never re-wetted or wrinkled. The process can
cost between $40 and $70 per cubic foot.”
Once the materials are stabilized, staff can go through and determine what is salvageable.
Sets and costumes, stored in a warehouse in North New Jersey, were not affected by the storm.
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