Gerard Mortier Got Handsome City Opera Severance

“Mortier earned a salary of $65,000 and ‘severance’ of $335,000. City Opera hired Mortier in February 2007 when he was still helming the Paris Opera. He was expected to take up his position in New York in September 2009,” but he “resigned in November 2008, saying City Opera’s budget cuts … prevented him from fulfilling his vision.”