Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- George Steel, the general manager of the Dallas Opera, said he isn’t interested in the top job at New York City Opera -- the 65-year-old company that’s homeless, leaderless and short of money.

Steel said while he’s had discussions with board member Mary Sharp Cronson about the opera, they weren’t formal negotiations. Incoming impresario Gerard Mortier quit City Opera last month, nine months before he was scheduled to take over fulltime.

“I’m aware of the speculation that I’m a candidate,” Steel, 42, said. “I’m not interested in the job at New York City Opera.”

Steel spoke to Bloomberg News after a Steel spokeswoman confirmed that he had talked to New York City Opera and “was interested.” Steel said he’s “extremely happy” running the Dallas Opera, adding that its new Norman Foster-designed hall is “fantastic.”

“Nothing has changed,” he said.

Steel joined Dallas, a high-profile regional company, in October. For 11 years he ran Columbia University’s Miller Theatre and won acclaim presenting a mix of new music, opera, dance and theater.

Susan L. Baker, City Opera’s chairwoman, didn’t return calls. Mortier quit after complaining that its budget was too small for his ambition.

Dallas Opera is preparing to move into the Winspear Opera House, part of the roughly $275 million Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The new opera house is scheduled to open on Oct. 23, 2009, with a production of Verdi’s “Otello.”

Rumors Circulated

Ward Halla, a former president of the Dallas Opera Guild, said rumors about City Opera and Steel began circulating upon Mortier’s departure.

The Miller has about 700 seats, Dallas’s new Winspear Opera house will have 2200 and City Opera’s David H. Koch Theater has about 2,700. It’s currently being renovated.

In 2007, Dallas Opera’s budget was $11.5 million. City Opera spends about four times that annually and in the year ending June 2006 ran a deficit of about $3 million, according to its tax return. New York’s Metropolitan Opera, City Opera’s Lincoln Center neighbor, has an annual budget exceeding $200 million.

“I had lunch with him recently and was very impressed,” said Roger Horchow, a Dallas patron, Broadway producer and catalog magnate. “I don’t know why he would leave. He has a brand new opera house and he’s moved his family here.”

Raised in a Maryland suburb of Washington, Steel is a specialist in contemporary music and a conductor and composer. He has said often that he strictly picks music that inspires him.

Trusting Instincts

“In the performing arts business, there’s an enormous amount of programming that goes on because you think you’re supposed to do it,” Steel said in an interview this month in Playbillarts.com. “It’s profoundly dull, it radiates dullness, and it drives people away in droves. You have to develop a trust in your own instincts.”

Steel opened the Miller’s fall season with Iannis Xenakis’s “Oresteia.” The adaptation of Aeschylus’s trilogy incorporates opera, dance and projections.

The Belgian-born Mortier said that he would not be able to lead City Opera “given the significantly reduced funds available” to transform the opera house according to his vision.

Mortier’s demand for a $60 million budget couldn’t be met, Baker said. He is serving out his term heading the Opera de Paris and will take over the Teatro Real opera house in Madrid.

The Koch Theater, formerly the New York State Theater, is home to City Opera and the New York City Ballet. Its renovation is scheduled to be finished next year for the 2009-10 season.

The ballet, led by Peter Martins, made sure the company was ensconced for its lucrative winter season. The opera, which sought unsuccessfully for years to move to a new home, has been wandering among out-of-the-way venues in all five boroughs until the renovation is complete.

-- With reporting by Jeremy Gerard. Editors: Mary Romano, Daniel Billy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 22, 2008 17:40 EST