Rudolf Bing, Opera Impresario, Dies

Sir Rudolf Bing, the ascetic and acerbic general manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera for 22 years, died yesterday. He was 95.

Sir Rudolf, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died in a hospital in Yonkers, N.Y.

The impresario, who dismissed both tenor Lauritz Melchior and diva Maria Callas, was known for his verbal flaying of superstars. He also was known for his kindness, including establishment of a pension plan for poorly paid members of the Met orchestra, chorus and ballet corps.

Fifteen years after his 1972 retirement from the Met, Sir Rudolf recaptured headlines because of a second and unusual marriage to Carroll Douglass, four decades his junior.

The marriage took place in Alexandria, Va., two days after the mentally declining impresario had been placed under the court conservatorship of his attorney, Paul C. Guth.

Sir Rudolf's estate dwindled from $900,000 at the beginning of 1987 to less than $30,000 in cash and two valuable paintings when the marriage was annulled in 1989.

Sir Rudolf had written in his second autobiography of his sadness and loneliness after his wife of 54 years, ballerina Nina Schelemskaya-Schelesnaya, suffered a stroke. Friends say his mental deterioration began after her death in 1983.

Rudolf Bing was born in Vienna into a solidly middle-class Austrian business family. He worked at theaters and operas in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

In 1935, he received an invitation to stage Mozart performances in Glyndebourne, England. He obtained British citizenship and courted the image of the Englishman, favoring double-breasted suits, a bowler and a tightly rolled umbrella even during the years in New York.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 1956.

Sir Rudolf's beginnings at the Met in the early 1950s were rocky. He was criticized by the board of directors when he fired Melchior and other artists in a dispute over their age, salaries and other differences.

Over the years, he was praised for careful budgeting that allowed him to expand the Met season from 18 weeks to more than 30; for admitting black performers to the Met roster and encouraging their acceptance by operagoers even when the Met toured the South; for hiring American-born conductors and experimenting with Broadway directors; and for improving visual segments - sets, costumes and movement.

Sir Rudolf was notorious for getting what he wanted from singers - or telling them to leave. His feud with the temperamental Callas in 1958 made New York front pages. Bing fired her, although the two later smoothed over their differences.