Rudolf Bing | |
|---|---|
| General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera | |
| In office 1950–1972 | |
| Preceded by | Edward Patrick Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Göran Gentele |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rudolf Franz Joseph Bing (1902-01-09)January 9, 1902 |
| Died | September 2, 1997(1997-09-02) (aged 95) Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
| Spouses | |
| Education | University of Vienna |
| Occupation | Opera impresario |
Sir Rudolf Bing,KBE (January 9, 1902 – September 2, 1997) was an Austrian-born Britishoperaimpresario who worked in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, including as General Manager of theMetropolitan Opera inNew York City from 1950 to 1972. He was naturalized as a British subject in 1946 and wasknighted in 1971, although he spent decades living in the United States, where he died.
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Rudolf Bing" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
BornRudolf Franz Joseph Bing inVienna, Austria-Hungary to a well-to-do Jewish family (his father was an industrialist). Bing was an apprentice to a bookseller at the prestigious Viennese shop of Gilhofer & Ranschburg before moving on to Hugo Heller, who also ran a theatrical and concert agency. He then studiedmusic andart history at theUniversity of Vienna. In 1927, he went toBerlin,Germany, and subsequently served as general manager of opera houses in that city and inDarmstadt.
While in Berlin he married a Russian ballerina, Nina Schelemskaya-Schlesnaya. In 1934, with the rise ofNazi Germany, the Bings moved to theUnited Kingdom, where, in 1946, he became a naturalised British subject.[1] There, together withFritz Busch andCarl Ebert, he helped to found theGlyndebourne Festival Opera. After the war in 1947, he co-founded and was the first director of theEdinburgh International Festival inScotland.
In 1949, he moved to theUnited States, and became General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera the following year, a post he held for 22 years. During the 1960s, he supervised the move of the old Metropolitan on Broadway and 39th Street, to its new quarters inLincoln Center and presided over one of the most prominent eras of the Met. It was summed up in 1990 by James Oestreich inThe 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 [which he then had razed] 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."[2]
During Bing's tenure the Met's artist roster became integrated for the first time.Marian Anderson became the firstAfrican American to sing a leading role in 1955. She was soon followed byRobert McFerrin,Gloria Davy,Mattiwilda Dobbs,Leontyne Price,George Shirley,Grace Bumbry,Shirley Verrett,Reri Grist, and many others. He was noted for his preference for European singers and an apparent lack of interest in some leading American performers.Beverly Sills had to wait until after Bing's retirement to make her Met debut in 1975, although Bing later said that not engaging Sills earlier was a mistake.[3] He fostered the careers of many American artists.Roberta Peters,Leontyne Price,Anna Moffo,Sherrill Milnes, andJess Thomas are just a few that flourished during his time.
Bing is also remembered for his stormy relationship with the era's most famous soprano,Maria Callas. After hiring her for the Met with a debut asNorma on opening night in 1956, he famously canceled her contract in 1958 when they could not come to terms regarding the roles she would sing. Bing invited Callas to return to the Met for two performances ofTosca in 1965, the year that turned out to be her final season in opera.[4]
After leaving the Met, Bing wrote two books of memoirs,5000 Nights at the Opera (1972) andA Knight at the Opera (1981).[citation needed]
While living in Berlin, Bing married the Russian ballerina Nina Schelemskaya-Schlesnaya in 1928. They remained together until her death in 1983. They had no children.[citation needed]
In January 1987, when Bing was suffering fromAlzheimer's disease, he married Carroll Douglass, a 45-year-old woman with a history of mental illness, who then took him, in violation of a court order, on a 10-month-long excursion to Florida, thenAnguilla, and eventually to Italy and the United Kingdom, where she had sought to buyRolls-Royce automobiles and a helicopter to give tothe Pope, for whom she had a fixation. The couple were found living in a homeless shelter inLeeds, England, before being coaxed to return to New York by Sir Rudolf's lawyers. By 1989, a lawyer for Bing reported that his estate had been reduced during the marriage from $900,000 to less than $200,000, much of it spent on bodyguards hired to keep Douglass from spiriting him out of New York.
For this reason, and owing to Bing's mental impairment, a New York state court in September declared him incompetent to enter into a marriage contract and annulled the union. Douglass was a patient in the psychiatric ward ofBellevue Hospital at the time and received no settlement except $25,000 to cover hospital expenses.[5][6][7][8]
In May 1989,Roberta Peters andTeresa Stratas arranged for Bing to be admitted tothe Hebrew Home for the Aged in theRiverdale section ofthe Bronx, New York, where he resided until his death. Bing died fromrespiratory failure as a complication ofAlzheimer's disease on September 2, 1997, aged 95, atSt. Joseph's Hospital inYonkers, New York.[9]He is buried inWoodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
InNew Year Honours List of 1956,Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bing a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire (CBE) for "services to music."[10] In 1971, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) for "services to Anglo-American relations," becoming Sir Rudolf Bing.[11] Throughout his years in America, Bing had remained a British citizen.[12]In 1973, Bing received theGrand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria.[13]
Sir Rudolf Bing, who as the dapper and acerbic general manager of the Metropolitan Opera from 1950 to 1972 ushered the company into the modern era and into Lincoln Center, died yesterday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers. He was 95 and lived at the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale in The Bronx.
| Preceded by | General Manager of theMetropolitan Opera 1950–1972 | Succeeded by |
