“For its third production this season, the itinerant New York City Opera returned to New York City Center, where it was born as “the people’s opera” in 1944 and spent the first two decades of its life. The opera world has undergone major changes since then, and City Opera, still battling back from a near-death experience four years ago, continues to search for a distinctive contemporary identity, one that will attract sufficient audiences and donors to sustain it.”