A Knight At The Opera

by Rudolf Bing

Sir Rudolf's second memoir, a follow up to his "5,000 Nights at the Opera" catalogues more tales from his twenty-two years as General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera and his life in the world of elite classical music performance.

Genres: Music

287 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Sir Rudolf Bing, KBE was an Austrian-born British 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 City from 1950 to 1972. He was naturalized as a British subject in 1946 and was knighted in 1971, although he spent decades living in the United States, where he died.

Born Rudolf Franz Joseph Bing in Vienna, 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 studied music and art history at the University of Vienna. 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, Nina Schelemskaya-Schlesnaya. 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, together with Fritz Busch and Carl Ebert, he helped to found the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. After the war in 1947, he co-founded and was the first director of the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.

Reviews

[Eileen McCauley · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this second book lacks the chronological structure and detail of Bing's first autobiography, it still has lots of opera anecdotes told with wit and snark. I loved this bit:
“.. later there was an imported production from San Francisco of "Der Fliegende Hollander” which I considered an artistic impertinence. Rumor was it that nobody had taken the trouble to go to San Francisco to see this monstrosity before it was unveiled at the Met.”
because I saw that production in San Francisco! I hated it. Sir Bing does show some discretion. He writes: "in the past singers and managers showed some artistic integrity", he does not provide specific examples of the lack there of. Definitely recommended for opera fans.