Show Summary Details

Page of

Printed from Grove Music Online. Grove is a registered trademark. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy).

Subscriber: null; date: 18 February 2025

Bing, Sir Rudolflocked

Bing, Sir Rudolflocked

  • Patrick J. Smith

(b Vienna, Jan 9, 1902; d New York, Sept 2, 1997). British impresario of Austrian birth. The son of an iron and steel magnate, he began his career in a Viennese bookshop whose proprietor soon branched out as an impresario of artistic events. In the 1920s Bing worked in Berlin before becoming assistant to Carl Ebert at the Hessisches Staatstheater in Darmstadt (1928–30), assistant to the Intendant of the Charlottenburg Opera, Berlin (1930–33), and general manager of the Glyndebourne Opera (1936–49). In 1946 he took British nationality and helped to found the Edinburgh Festival, of which he was artistic director from 1947 to 1949.

In 1950 Bing became general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, New York. His tenure (until 1972) was the second longest in its history. He had a great influence on both the company and American opera in the 1950s and 60s, particularly because of his autocratic attitudes. In the early years he improved standards of performance and direction. His emphasis on scenic design and imaginative direction reflected his European experience, and was new to the USA. Bing introduced a number of black singers and dancers and extended the season to fill the whole year; he also supervised the move to the Lincoln Center. In the later years, however, like his predecessor Gatti-Casazza, he failed to develop new ideas for coping with the economic and artistic climates of the period, although the house continued to have individual successes. In 1973 he was appointed Consultant for Special Projects by Columbia Artists Management. His 5000 Nights at the Opera (London, 1972) and A Knight at the Opera (New York, 1981) relate some of the many vicissitudes of his career. He was knighted in 1971.