Rudolf Bing

Sir Rudolf Bing (January 9, 1902 - September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born opera impresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably being General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972. He became a British citizen in 1946 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1971.

Career

Born Rudolph Franz Joseph Bing in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a well-to-do Jewish family (his father was an industrialist), Bing studied at the University of Vienna and as a young man worked in theatrical and concert agencies. In 1927 he went to Berlin, Germany and subsequently served as general manager of opera houses in that city and in Darmstadt.

While in Berlin he married a Russian ballerina, but in 1934, with the rise of Nazi Germany, the Bings moved to the United Kingdom where, in 1946 he became a naturalised British subject. There he helped to found the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and, after the war, organised the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

In 1949 he went to the United States, to become General Manager of the Metropolitan the following year, a post he would hold for 22 years. During the 1960s, he supervised the move of the old Metropolitan to its new quarters in Lincoln Center and his administration presided over one of the most prominent eras of the Met. It was summed up in 1990 by James Oestreich in the New York Times as follows:

Wielding his powerful position at the Metropolitan Opera with intense personal charisma over two decades, Sir Rudolf Bing ruled much of the operatic universe in autocratic fashion, nurturing young artists and cutting superstars down to size with equal enthusiasm. He oversaw the abandonment in 1966 of the stately but somewhat dilapidated old Metropolitan Opera House and the construction of a grand monument to his regime, the building the company now occupies, which dominates Lincoln Center. His conservative musical and dramatic bent, preference for Italian opera and concern for theatrical values yielded an identifiable artistic legacy.

During Bing's tenure the Met's artist roster became integrated for the first time. Marian Anderson became the first African American to sing a leading role at the house in 1955. She was soon followed by Reri Grist, Robert McFerrin, Shirley Verrett, and many others.

Bing was noted for his preference for European singers and an apparent disinterest in some leading American performers. Notably, Beverly Sills had to wait until after Bing's retirement to make her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1975. In an interview after his retirement, Bing acknowledged that not using Sills was a mistake. Still, Bing fostered the careers of many American artists during his years at the Met. Roberta Peters, Leontyne Price, Anna Moffo, Sherrill Milnes, and Jess Thomas are just a few that flourished during his time.

After leaving the Met, Bing wrote two books, 5000 Nights at the Opera (1972) and A Knight at the Opera (1981).

Personal life

While living in Berlin, Bing married the Russian ballerina Nina Schelemskaya-Schlesnaya in 1928. They remained married until her death in 1983. In January 1987, he married Carroll Douglass, a 45 year-old woman who then took him with her to the Caribbean. However, she had a history of mental illness, and as Bing had been suffering for some years from Alzheimer's disease, an American court eventually declared him incompetent to enter into a marriage contract and annulled the union.

In 1989 Roberta Peters and Teresa Stratas arranged for Bing to be admitted to The Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, Bronx, where he resided until his death.

He died from respiratory failure on September 2, 1997, aged 95 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, New York.

References

Notes

Sources

• Bing, Rudolf, 5000 Nights at the Opera: The Memoirs of Sir Rudolf Bing, New York: Doubleday, 1972. ISBN 0-385-09259-8
• Bing, Rudolf, A Knight at the Opera, New York: Putnam, 1981. ISBN 0-399-12653-8

Preceded by Edward Johnson

General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera 1950-1972

Succeeded by Göran Gentele