Rudolf Bing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Rudolf Franz Joseph Bing (born January 9, 1902 in Vienna ; † September 2, 1997 in Yonkers , New York ) was an Austro-British opera director and for many years head of the New York Metropolitan Opera .

Life

Bing came from a long-established Jewish industrial family in Vienna, in which u. a. and Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrong. He completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller at the Viennese companies Gilhofer & Ranschburg and Hugo Heller , who also ran a concert agency, and studied music and art history in Vienna. He began his career as a singer until Carl Ebert brought him to the Landestheater Darmstadt as an assistant in 1928 . In 1931 both moved to the Städtische Oper in Berlin. In 1933 he had to persecution by the virtue of its social democratic conviction and the risk Nazis to Britain in the emigration go. There he founded the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934 together with Carl Ebert, Fritz Busch and John Christie and made it world famous as general manager (1936–49). He attached particular importance to the priority of the scenic over the vocal performances.

He remained true to this principle when he was appointed to the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York in 1950, after a two-year interlude at the Edinburgh Festival - a position he held until 1972. There he was known for pushing through difficult casting decisions, such as the appointment of the blacks Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson or the resignation of the opera diva Maria Callas (1958), which he was able to re-engage in for Tosca in 1965 . At the same time, he resisted the idea of ​​performing modern pieces in the traditional house, as he wanted full auditoriums. In character, he was a correct habitual and grand seigneur . In 1946, Bing became a British citizen.

In 1971 he was ennobled, a year later he retired into private life for reasons of age. In the early years of his retirement he was a visiting professor at Brooklyn College and New York University, then he worked for Columbia Artists Management. After the death of his wife in 1983, the Russian dancer Nina Schelemskaja-Schlesnaja, he fell ill with Alzheimer's . At the instigation of his befriended asset manager, his marriage to Carroll Douglas, 38 years his junior, on his 85th birthday was annulled, but too late. The mismanagement of his new partner had already ruined him, so that there was no longer even the money for hospital bills. Bing last lived in a Jewish retirement home (Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale) in the New York borough of Bronx and died in St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers .

Awards

Fonts

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-19295789/sir-rudolph-and-lady-carroll-douglass-bing
  2. ↑ Knights and Dames: BED-BUG at Leigh Rayment's Peerage
  3. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Bing, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bing, Sir Rudolf Franz Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-British opera director
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1997
Place of death Yonkers , New York